Swimming pics

Thought it would be a good idea to go to the pool so Koletrane can get in some practice since he has a pool party coming up soon. Also a good chance to try out the underwater settings on my camera.

Click here to see a video of me swimming underwater.


Or click here to see Kole playing in the water!

The year so far...

It's been about 4 weeks since my last post, but not for lack of interesting life events. First off, Elliette started walking! She's been able to for quite some time...she has been standing up on her own for about 2 months, but lacked the self confidence to actually take a step. She still prefers to crawl, or "walk" on her knees since she gets to where she is going much faster. Here is a video of her practicing.

Winter has been kicking our asses, though. CT has been quite cold, and snowing on and off every few weeks...enough that all the trails around here are pretty icy and snowed over. I still manage to sneak out once in a while, when I can! But for the most part cold weather makes me want to hibernate.

 

Don't let the "serious" face fool you, I really was enjoying myself! The pictures I took of myself smiling just looked silly. I found a nice spot to do an overnight in the spring on the Quinipiac Trail in Bethany (I think it was Bethany), and there was a trail log in a wood box nailed to a tree. I had a nice sit n' read, reading all the entries in the log, some years old, and leaving my own before I left. It was a nice, "warm" 35F that day, but by the time I started back I noticed there was only about an hour of sunlight left, and it had taken me an hour and a half to hike in over icy terrain. That was the closest I've come to running in the past month.

In running news, I very regretfully had to drop out of the Ragnar Relay race. I had been looking forward to running and training with a team, but the brokeness of my foot won't let me run. I made it up to 15-20 miles per week after the ortho gave me the ok to run again, but after a few weeks of that I came painfully close to have to go back to using my cane. So no more running. For now. I still try to get some cardio in on the treadmill every day, or every other day depending on how my foot feels. I limit myself to 1/4 mile "brisk" walks followed by resistance work, 2-3 sets of 2-3 different exercises (usually arms, legs, chest, repeat) with little to no break between. On a good day, I'll do 6-8 repeats of that workout. That has been happening 3-4 times a week. It makes for a productive way to spend 2 hours while Elliette naps during the day. Now if only I could kick that nasty ice cream addiction...

I've been making good use of my New Years resolutions, and I think I've been keeping up with them quite well. I decided to take it a step further and each month give up (for that month) one thing I consider to be a crutch. Last month it was material purchases, this month its no alcohol. I don't buy a lot of shit, since I don't "work" more than 3 times a month, but I thought it would be a cool experiment and a good way to practice non-attachment. I only broke it once, when I went to Boston to see Humanwine and bought a cd. I felt fine with that since I was helping support underground music, and I like the ideals they as a band embody.

 

Heres a video I took durring the show.

Speaking of music, I've been playing with a few friends once or twice a week. I've had a handful of songs/ideas bouncing around my head for quite some time, and it feels really good to share them with other musicians. We've already worked out 4 original songs in 5(?) practices, so now we're just keeping an eye open for possible additions.

Other trivial banalities:
Koletrane joined the chorus at school. I drop him off before school (8:15AM) on Wednesdays, but the last two have been canceled due to snow. He claims he joined to impess a girl. :)

Nancy has been applied for medical rep jobs all over the country, mostly (well, only) in "warm" states. California, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Arizona. Fuck snow.

We've been having some fun family jam sessions. We play along to songs we all like as they play on the stereo, since its easier  for the young ones to keep the beat that way. The kids do drums, rattles, harmonica, and kazoo while Nancy sings and helps them, and I do guitar. "Oh Valencia" by the Decemberists is a favorite of ours to do.

Nancy and I had some really awesome ideas for where we want to be in life by the time Elliette is done with grade school, so 12 years. But that will probably be a long post, so I'll get to that some other time.

Little readers! (and headbangers)

 

 

 

Kole had his friend Matthew over today for a bit of sledding in our yard. They have been in the same classes in school for the past three years and are quite good friends...but unfortunately Matthew's family is moving to Florida in July.

 

 

 

 

My baby girl is getting so big.

 

Kole decided his loose tooth was ripe for the picking, and thought it would be fun to get creative with the removal.

 

 

New Years Resolutions

For the most part, I think New Years resolutions are BS. People don't take them seriously or even care about them for more than a week or two into January. I also feel that the usual "resolutions" are self serving, superficial and don't do anything to make our lives truly happy. That said, having goals to strive toward and working for positive change in ones life is a vital and important part to leading a fulfilling and satisfying life. I try not to make mine unrealistic, if I make them at all. Keeping them within our means and not making them overly stressful can ensure better results. Here's the short list of positive things I'd like to see happen in 2010.

-Eat slower. Eating is a great time to practice mindfulness meditation. Rushing through meals out of breath like you're mad at your food is not a healthy way to eat, or live.

-Be more patient with my kids. Sometimes it is hard to remember that they're children, and not miniature adults.

-Take my running less seriously than I did last year. I'd like to run just to run, not to place well in a race or log big mileage. That's the sort of false pride that has caused me to over train and, as a result, hurt myself.

-Be less of a grump. I don't feel grumpy often, but Nancy says I am. If it will make her happy, then its something I will look into and work on.

-Don't pig out on junk food late at night. There has never been a single instance where I wake up in the morning and say to myself  "wow, I'm really happy I ate six cupcakes and a plate of nachos last night".

-Tell my wife that I love her every day.

-Live life one breath at a time.

“Live your daily life in a way that you never lose yourself. When you are carried away with your worries, fears, cravings, anger, and desire, you run away from yourself and you lose yourself. The practice is always to go back to oneself.”

-Thich Nhat Hahn 

The past 10 years in *brief* retrospective:

The years 2000-2009 in the life of Jay Prince:

-Quit my job with a marginal future in lieu of an artistic job that paid crap.
-Played in a great band with a bunch of awesome guys.
-Moved into my first apartment.
-Broke edge.
-Played a ton of awesome shows and met a ton of awesome people, some of which became life long friends.
-Met Nancy in the beginning of 2000
-Ended a relationship with a very nice girl.
-Drove a car without a rear windshield for an entire New England winter.
-Fell deeply, completely, and hopelessly in love.
-Got pepper sprayed by pigs cops a few times.
-Moved in with Nancy.
-Got arrested for dumpster diving/learned valuable life lessons.
-Quit my band.
-Had a Baby Boy.
-Got a job doing body piercings full time.
-Worked long miserable hours.
-Lost my Dad.
-Became very depressed.
-Quit my job and got my life back on track.
-Took a wonderful, mind cleansing trip to California.
-Read hundreds of books.
-Discovered my love of long distance running.
-Discovered Buddhism, and Buddhist meditation.
-Got married.
-Confessed to Nancy I really did want another child.  :)
-Had a Baby Girl.
-Lived life.
-Loved.

Various New England Proverbs

"You can't keep trouble from coming, but you don't have to give it a chair to sit
on."

"Small circumstances produce great events"

"Wishing isn't doing."

"The world is your cow.  But you have to do the milking."

"It won't be warm till the snow gets off the mountain, and the snow won't get off
the mountain till it gets warm."

"You can't always tell by the looks of a toad how far he can jump."

"Talk less and say more"

"He who feels the benefit should feel the burden."

"One today is worth two tomorrows."

"A good word now is worth ten on a headstone."

"A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple."

"The hardest work is to do nothing."

"Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves."

"Money is flat and meant to be piled."

"Cut your sail according to your cloth."

"We have two seasons: winter and the Fourth of July."

"In New England we have nine months of winter and three months of darned
poor sledding."

"Take off your flannels before the first of May, and you'll have a doctor's bill to
pay."

"Thick and blue, tried and true. Thin or crispy, way too risky." (proverb about
the safety of ice)

"An ounce of experience is worth a pound of theory."

"The quickest way to do many things is to do one thing at a time."

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