Summer in Ohio

Summer adventures are mostly over now, and it's back to the status quo. My little family unit traveled many many miles, braved storms, traffic, puke, poop, tantrums, random crack-heads, sleep deprivation, "heat", power outages, and still managed to be where we needed to be, and see who we were supposed to see. We traveled far and wide, but we returned safely, and have some great experiences to live with for a long time to come. I have to put up some links and some recommendations for places to visit if you are ever in Columbus, OH.

1. For the best cup of coffee you will ever have, you have to visit Luck Bros' Coffee House in Grandview. These guys really know their stuff, and my wife and I make a concerted effort to stop in there whenever we pass through. They do it all in the realms of coffee. There are tons of places Columbus has to offer, but I can't speak for them all since I haven't had a chance to see much of my old stomping grounds in the last ten years. But this place is the real deal. Also, there is a cute little park across the street, so if you have youngsters, you can get your coffee, and walk over to play.
2. For the most aamzing Ice Cream I have ever had, check out Jeni's Ice Cream. We bought a pint at the second stop in at Luck Bros' and I can only describe it as out-of-this-world good. I have had some decadent desserts, but nothing compared to this ice cream. To quote the master:

"Every day I’m surrounded by an ice cream-making crew of artists, writers, photographers, bakers, big-brain mathletes, travelers with omnivorous cultural appetites, and world-class experience gatherers."

"We create ice creams we fall madly in love with, that we want to bathe in, that make us see million-year-old stars. We devour it out of Mason jars, coffee mugs—whatever we can get our hands on. Handmade American ice cream = Bliss with a big B. Every single thing we put in our ice cream is legit. Generic chemist-built ice cream bases and powdered astronaut-friendly gelato mixes? No, ma’am. We build every recipe from the ground up with luscious, Snowville milk and cream from cows that eat grass. With that exquisite base, we explore pure flavor in whatever direction moves us at any moment, every day, all year."

Local Produce from my home state, hand-made artisanal products, grass-fed cows... Yeah. I'm in. And, they deliver!

3. I try to stop in Amish country whenever I can, and if you find yourself driving though Ohio, a small detour off the beaten path may be worth your while. There is a small country store just outside of Bellefontaine near theAmish settlement of Belle Center called the Country Variety Store and Bakery. When i was just a young pup, my grandmother would take me in there on the way home from Camp Wesley in the summer. Back then the refrigerators operated off of natural gas, and there were no lights. It's a little different now, but it's still the quaint country store it always was. I picked up a cute little hand-made rocking chair for my daughter, and some egg-noodles.

4. On a recommendation from family, we stopped in at Marie's Candies(!). I know this doesn't fit in with most of my principles, but they hand make all the chocolate in the basement of a converted train station, and the story behind the place is pretty cool. The chocolate was awesome, It was a special treat, and it even came with a warning at purchase "now this doens't have any preservatives or stabilizers in it, so keep it out of the sun or it will met in your car." They follow the same recipes that Marie herself made when she opened the shop when her husband came down with polio in 1941. The business started as a way to provide a living for the family. They have been in business since 1956, and you can take tours of the little old Train Depot where they make the chocolates today. This place is definitely worth a detour.

We stopped in Asheville, NC on the way back home to our little cottage by the sea. We made a point to go to Tupelo Honey Cafe for breakfast the next morning. This place is one of my favorite restaurants in the world. I'll let them speak for themselves. If you are ever in Asheville, stop in.

I did get to get a run in while there, and i have to say I underestimated the hills. I see more bridge runs in my future to compensate for the flatness of Florida and Louisiana. I saw enough of my old spots to miss them terribly, but Not enough to remember why I moved the hell away in the first place. Ohio in the summer and fall is one of the best places to be. It's the other parts of the year that can suck. What i miss most is the open spaces. I'm definitely a country boy at heart looking for a simpler life. I feel a strong connection to my family land that will never be broken. A little bit of the Blanchard River will always run through my veins, and I will always long for the clear skies and clean air of my childhood. I guess it must be a shift from my twenties to my thirties.

I would have posted more pictures, however we were so busy chasing a lightening fast toddler around, there weren't many pics actually taken; neither were videos. I suppose this is why family albums always seem to hit a lull when the babies get bigger. Once kids get mobile, they surely don't sit still for pictures. Especially when they are little adventurers like their daddy!

Summer Break

I have a lot of Summertime Daddy things to accomplish in the next couple of weeks, so I will not be writing anything. I will instead be grilling meat, enjoying time with my family, chasing my little girl around like a bear, and getting into some regular old neighborhood adventures. I'll be back in a few weeks.

n=1; The Paleo-Libertarian Connection

"Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs."

"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist."

Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Self Reliance"

"Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it."

Henry David Thoreau

There is a deep seated vein of Libertarianism within the greater Paleo community. For a long time, I have been searching for the connection between the two. Paleo is about using an evolutionary approach to diet, health and wellness, and fitness. It has been around as a published diet in one form or another for over 40 years, but the most recent form has been more of a movement than one set of rules and guidelines that constitute a "diet" that one can start and stop at anytime. Paleo, while not being considered mainstream, is comprised of a network of bloggers, scientists, health professionals, and authors that all lend a unique voice to the greater "Paleo-sphere." The principles and guidelines are fluid, so as new information comes to light, studies published, and talking heads are refuted; the idealogy adapts to reflect the findings. This is a true grass-roots movement moving at the speed of the internet in the information age. The information is available to provide a solid framework for health and well-being as our peers and relatives are dying of the Diseases of Civilization or Syndrome X.

The Paleo Crowd is growing. It's doubling every year, as evidenced by the 2011 Paleo Community Survey. This is nearly a movement considered "radical" by some in the mainstream. When people start to do their own research into this way of living, eyes begin to open to a history of deception, bad business, legal roadblocks, and government SNAFU's all mired around the pseudoscience released shortly after WWII, and perpetuated by Large Media Outlets and US Government Bureaucracies. I liken it to falling down the rabbit hole, waking up in Oz, or taking the red pill; it's waking up to a painful reality. The Conventional Wisdom of the day, spread like manure by Big Pharma, Big Cola, Yum Foods, McDonalds, Disney, ConAgra, ADM, Monsanto, and the bureaucratic arms of the government (which are simply mercantilist policy makers that have revolving doors to the industries they govern. Conflict of interest, much?) are precisely why the US is getting fatter, less healthy, and has a lower life expectancy than previous generations. Medical care is supposedly better, but it really just keeps you in a perpetual state of sick and miserable, so you have to keep taking the drugs to treat symptoms while ignoring the cause. The same Conventional Wisdom is taught briefly in med school and flawed studies funded by the industries most benefiting are pushed as fact (pseudoscience). Our country gets sicker, and as we start to figure out how to fix it, the regulations are passed to stop it. The key is to look in ourselves.

One of the major tenets of the paleo paradigm is to "see what works" or "listen to your body" and adapt your personal plan around this. This is what is referred to as an experiment of one or n=1. n=1 is the ultimate expression of self-reliance. It makes no difference what others are doing. It makes no difference what the mandated government sponsored info-graphic of the day is, you will eat according to your biological make-up (this is exactly what the giant food producers are afraid of, and have been keen to react to because it pulls you away from the independence of subsidized grain; but that's another post). This is freedom. This is Liberty. When the shady practices of the mercantile government bureaucracies, reactionary politics, and the helplessness of the healthcare industry get your feathers all ruffled up, you start to see the logic behind Libertarianism. The government has no right to tell you what can and can't go in your mouth, what you need to do for exercise, or what you can do with your own private property. The Information Age has provided the opportunity for the little guy to actually see the bigger picture. This is a Renaissance, and all the information is at your fingertips. You can see the error of picking one of two sides. They are both wrong, and hamper the liberties of every individual in this nation. Laws are made, policies follow, and generally never go away. People complain and want to gubment to help them, but the road to the dark side of capitalism is paved with good intentions. Follow the money. The well being of the citizenry is not high on the priority list.

Maybe as time goes on, the tidal wave of sea change will influence the political landscape of this country. Right now we are seeing the result of the hippies and veterans of the Vietnam war all grown up, and in positions of power. The next generation (this one) can see the errors of the past and will strive to fix it. It is up to us to preserve the ideals laid out for us by our founding fathers. If the wake-up call for most people is through the food they eat, then so be it. I hope more people wake up. Do we need to have a brand name? To some extent, in this day and age, yes. You can only fight buzz words with more buzz words, soudbites with more soundbites, tweets with tweets and Facebook messages. Spread it around.

“First, they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you.
Then you win.”

Mahatma Ghandi

The Paleo Diet Infographic

For the Paleo crowd, I'm late on this, but I am posting this up for the people who are not associated with the Paleo community... Yet.

From Patrik, who brought the world PaleoHacks and PaleolithicDiet.com
Here is the Paleo Diet Infographic:

Learn more about the Paleo Diet.

Sunday Afternoon Music Videos

Non Diet Related Happy Sunday Music Video Funtime!

Renaissance Plate: The Artist's Table from Emiko Davies

I found this little gem on Twitter today, posted by Lonely Planet from Emiko Davies a Citizen-of-the-World type travel and food blogger in Florence, Italy. The Artists Table details a few days in the life of the Italian artist Jacapo Pontormo in the spring of 1554, late in his life.

http://www.emikodavies.com/blog/the-artists-table/

On the 11th of March 1554, on Sunday morning, I ate lunch with Bronzino—chicken and veal—and felt well (it is true that I was in bed when he came for me at home. It was quite late and upon getting up I felt swollen and full. It was a very beautiful day). In the evening I ate a bit of roasted dry meat which made me thirsty.
Monday evening I ate a cabbage and an omelet.
Tuesday evening I ate one half of the head of a kid and soup.
Wednesday evening I had the other half, fried, and a pretty big helping of zibibbo grapes, and 5 quattrini of bread, and capers in salad.
Thursday evening, a soup of good mutton and salad of goat’s beard.
Friday evening, salad of goat’s beard and two eggs in an omelet.
Saturday, fasted. Sunday evening, which was the evening of Palm Sunday, I ate a little boiled mutton and salad, and had to eat three quattrini of bread.
Monday evening after dinner I felt very lively and agreeable. I ate a salad of lettuce, a thin soup of good mutton and 4 quattrini of bread.
Tuesday evening I ate a salad of lettuce and an omelet.
Holy Wednesday: evening, 2 quattrini of almonds, and an omelet and some walnuts. And I did the figure that is above the head [of another figure]. The Duchess came to San Lorenzo; the Duke came, too.
Thursday evening, a salad of lettuce and some caviar, and one egg.
Friday evening an omelet with fava beans, and a bit of caviar and 4 quattrini of bread. Saturday I ate two eggs.
Sunday, which was Easter morning and the Feast of the Annunciation, I went to eat lunch with Bronzino. And I ate dinner there, too.
Monday evening I ate a salad that was of borage and a half-lemon, and 2 eggs in an omelet.
Tuesday evening I was all hoarse and ate a rosemary bread and an omelet and a salad and some dry figs.
Wednesday, fasted.
Thursday evening, a rosemary bread, an omelet of one egg and a salad and 4 quattrini of bread, in all.

The blog post touches on the foibles of Pontormo and his food log, interestingly enough considered neurotic and obsessive (hmmm). and some of the other interesting things of Florentine Renaissance life, but the most interesting thing I noticed, beside the minuscule amount of bread on his menu, was the fasting. He generally ate one modest meal a day with just enough to keep him going through until the next except for the occasion of a religious feast! This was a painter who spent his days painting into wet plaster, and staying active.

Karen Pendergrass: Vegetarian Chicken Rant

Karen Pendergrass is behind the Paleo Approved Label. Share this, forward it on, and maybe people will stop believing in all the Vegan propaganda.


Humans are omnivores too.

Burning Rubber

You got tires? I got tires.

15yd tractor tire flip
15 push-ups with feet on tire
15yd tire flip
10 back extensions
10 GHD sit-ups
10 Chest to Bar pull-ups
20 sledgehammer tire slams (10 each side

5 rounds AFAP w/20# vest

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.9

My Day Job

This is a video of the Crew of Cougar 61 training at the BP West Sirius. The crew did a great job with the video. This is an awesome view of us getting it done. If we can't land on a rig, and there is medical emergency, this is how you get picked up to go to the hospital. This is why we train.



I was asked once why I train. I want to be conditioned for the rigors of the job. It is also fun. Functional fitness keeps me ready for anything life can throw at me.

Happy Mother's Day!

I speak a lot about family here on Every Day a New Adventure. Fatherhood is truly the greatest adventure I have ever been on, and it just keeps getting more exciting everyday. However, I couldn't do this without the support of my beautiful wife, the mother of my beautiful daughter. She is truly amazing, and I can't be more happy she is the Mother of my child. While daddy is out trying to make a living, she is there making sure little one grows up healthy, happy, strong, well-rounded, beautiful little girl. She does the hard work with little in return. She's changed diapers, kissed booboos, nursed and cared for, protected, and guided little one through everything this life has shown her; and will be there for the rest. Today is just a way to show the world honors you for all the hard work, tears, and joy you have put in it. I love you, and look forward to all the adventures we will have in the years to come.

I know now how hard my mother worked to keep myself and my brothers well. She was there for the bumps, bruises, breaks, grass stains, muddy footprints, bloody noses, tears, and laughter. She was there when things were tough, and never let us know about it. She was there keeping us safe, or bailing us out of trouble. She was there cheering us on around the turns of the track, rounding the bases, kicking soccer balls, drumming in band competitions; and she gasped in fright every time a pole vault attempt went the wrong direction and missed the pit. She with my dad were responsible for my brothers and I even when we didn't know it, or were trying so desperately to grow up. Thank you, Mom, for keeping me from hurting myself, others, from getting into too much trouble, and for just being my Mom. You have taught me so much, and I have everything in the world to thank you for. I love you.

To all the mothers out there. Thank you for all that you do. The work you put in and neverget credit for is noticed. The world doesn't run without you. Thank you.