Whassaaaaaaaaaaaaap? Hooraaaaaaaaay, Berkeley! Why all the excitement? No reason, really. It's just time to be silly, that's all. Plus, it's fun to take wacky pictures with Merlin.


He puts up with it really well.


Speaking of putting up with incessant photography, Brianna called after the race last weekend, and we went for a little stroll around Lake Merritt to stretch out. She got into it, and posed enthusiastically.


The lake is really pretty, and these string lights turn on at dusk, giving the place a sortof holiday vibe.


There are also plenty of ducks about. Brianna's sweatshirt says "Run Like a Girl." Sweet, huh?


More ducks.


Again, Brianna was very tolerant of my picture-taking, but this look let me know it was about time to quit. Sorry, B!


Of course, the mandatory picture of the TT bike. "Wait a tic," I hear you say, "something's different here." That's right! The old bar tape wore out, so I replaced it with red. Which is 10% faster. Really.


The bike, looking nonchalantly out over the bay.


There's my city. Pretty cool-lookin, huh? Well, that's all I've got for now. Next episode: a nice recipe for french-fried leeches.

This past weekend, the Cal Triathlon Team sent some members down to Santa Cruz for the Sentinel, an olympic distance triathlon. The team is super hardcore. To make it to Santa Cruz on time required waking up at 3:30am. Not only did the competing athletes meet this challenge, but several team members NOT competing in the race chose to wake up early just to come down and cheer the rest of us on. It's an awesome team.


Unfortunately, participating in the race precludes taking pictures of the race itself, so I've only got pre- and post-race pictures to show. At 6:00am, the transition area opened, and nearly 1000 athletes swarmed in to set up.


That's David, a young gun who won the 19 and under age group! What's more, he's from Iowa! Yeah, he went to Valley High School, and Indian Hills for junior high. We had some good talks about the scary math lessons Mr. Newendorp taught, and how Mr. White still loves Mayberry and the Greenbay Packers. Small world, huh?


Left to right: Andy, Maggie, and David. Those two on the right BOTH won their respective age groups, the very competitive 19-and-unders. It was Maggie's first olympic-distance. Studs, all three.


Someone once asked Greg LeMond what he thought about while biking for six hours a day, to which he immediately replied "Dairy Queen. Good God, I dream about Dairy Queen." The Cal team shares that sentiment, so we all trucked down to Fenton's, a local ice cream institution.


Andy is confused about what an "action shot" is, while Kelly just doesn't want to play.


Mimi and Maggie get into it. Maggie's flashing Vanilla Ice's trademark hand gesture, for those of you unfamiliar with it.


Justin and Diane play along too. It's no surprise that Justin's "action shot" involves running -- the kid took third place overall in the race. First and second were also from Cal. Sweet, huh? But not as sweet as the ice cream we'd all soon be eating.


Speaking of eating, Dwight, Kelsey, and Christi waste no time telling me what they think an "action shot" is when the food arrives.


The ice cream dishes were ... enormous. This one is the "petite" size.


I opted for the cookies-and-cream pie.


Colors! Again, these are all "petite" dishes.


Justin goes big in the tri, and follows suit at the ice cream parlor. Look at the SIZE of this thing. It's called the "Banana Cream Challenge," and weighs over three pounds. Good luck, buddy.


I guess Justin just doesn't know when to quit. He ate the whoooooooole thing.

Time for another race!

This weekend, running legend Laura Guest hosted a fantastic BBQ, after which we all went down to Oakland's McAfee Coliseum to watch the A's take on the Chicago White Sox. Laura's sister, Leigh, came out for the event. Aren't they just sooooooooooo cute together?


Laura's boyfriend, Mikel, manned the grill like a BBQ samurai.


Mmmmmmmmm .... chiiiiiiiiicken. He made a really good flank steak, too. Everything tasted delicious.

A large contingent of Laura's friends arrived for the party, with some confusingly-similar names. Among them were Marissa, Marina, Miranda, Laura, Lauren, Leigh, Brianna, and Sarah. Yeah. Try keeping all of THOSE names straight when meeting them all for the first time. As always, they got promted to do an "action pose," and Brianna responded in fine form:


Don't mess with kickboxers, or they'll take you out with a roundhouse kick to the head. Just like Chuck Norris.


Check out what's in Mikel's kitchen! Star Wars legos. Sweeeeeet.


After the BBQ, it was off to the statium! We took the Bart down, which went quite well. Barting in groups is fun because you have plenty of time to sit and chat while waiting around. Lauren looks like she just got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.


From left to right: Sarah, Lauren, Leigh, Marissa, Miranda, Laura, and Brianna. (It's possible that Marissa and Miranda are mixed up. Sorry, gals!)


Laura and Mikel got us GREAT seats for the game. We were at field level, as close to the field as possible while still in the shade. What a nice way to spend the afternoon.


These are Brianna's posh sunglasses. Do I look chic?


The obligatory self-picture with Brianna.


Leigh wanted to take a self-picture too, but got interrupted by an important call.


It was a great day, and a nice reprieve from the rigors of studying Criminal Law. Mikel's smile and salute here says it all. Oh yeah, and the A's won 5-to-4 over the White Sox. Go Oakland!

Until next time, dear readers. My love to all.

Warning: this post is very short and lacks the narrative substance of previous posts. Sorry.

Last night, after a lovely dinner at ... some place beginning in either the letter N or the letter B, fellow transfer student Danielle invited me out to chill with her long-time pal Alana and her roommate Caroline. (The aforementioned dinner was quite good. We got some kind of special mushroom pizza, whose leftovers I eagerly consumed this afternoon following my 12-mile run.)

We went to a brewery called Pyramid, a joint in the same vein as BJ's, Gordon Biersch, or Old Chicago.






Cheers!

After a couple beers, we all started chatting about who we like/diskile in the transfer group. It was good, juicy, gossipy fun. And aren't you curious who's on the s***list? Sorry, dear readers, that's privileged information. Ha!

Well, I'm off for a spin on the bike to try and relax these sore calves. TTFN, friends.

Leif has left for Germany, and won't be back until October 9th. That means I've got free reign of the place for three weeks! Time to paaaaaaaarty!! And by party, I mean hit the sack at 10pm. Before Leif left, though, he made this amazing apple & cinnamon pizza-style dessert. It was tasty and addictive.


The dough is just flour, oil, and water. The apple slices sit on a bed of sauce, which was made with cinnamon, sugar, and sour cream (an unexpected but brilliant ingredient). We ate two full trays of this stuff in one sitting.

OCIP has had us all running around like decapitated chickens. I'm doing 18 interviews, and that's on the low side. It's fun to play dress-up ... for a while.


Daniel looks the part in his sharp yellow tie. Actually, we gents all wear pretty much the same thing, so there's nothing on which to pass comment except the tie.


There's Dan (a different Dan), who had 7 interviews yesterday. He's not tired at all (sarcasm). Caroline keeps it real with carrots and Odwalla juice. Right on, sister.

Yesterday, I had a pretty insane workout. It included a normal warmup (and cooldown), but some beefy track intervals. The bad news is that I was supposed to run 5k worth of intervals at a pace equal to my 5k PR. This is not something you hope to be able to do while training for distance. I don't know why the schedule had such a crazy stupid set. But whatever, I went to the track and gave it my best.

The good news: I made every interval, with time to spare. Hell yeah! Afterwards, it was off to have some pizza with Daniel (yellow tie above). We went to Extreme, right by my apartment, and bumped into another 2L named Tia, who sat with us. It was good times.


Daniel is caught unawares as I whip out the camera.


Tia is ready, and busts out a very glamorous action pose.

Anyway, as always, the day after a hard run, I woke up this morning unable to stop eating. Usually, by 11am, I've only eaten twice. Breakfast, and a mid-morning snack. Today, I just couldn't help myslf. It's the rest-day munchies. Food log so far today:

8:00am -- Eggs
8:20am -- Cereal & milk
10:00am -- Lara bar
10:10am -- Half can of turkey chili, cold.
10:20am -- Other half of can, still cold. Added some cream cheese.
10:25am -- 4 spoonfuls of cereal, dry
10:30am -- 2 spoonfuls of peanut butter, with honey.

Ok, time to stop. I'm satisfied for now. Off to shower, interview, and go out to dinner with Danielle, a very sweet girl from my Mod-T class. She's also a runner, and came with me on my Wednesday run. It was a lot of fun.

Until next time, dear readers. I love you all.

Just got back from my weekly long run. Today's episode was an epic 20-miler along the gorgeous Bay Trail. This post is really a stream-of-consciousness log of the run itself, so if you're not interested, you can just skip the whole damn post. There are no pictures.

Pre-Run -- I woke up this morning a little weak from yesterday, when I did two workouts and didn't quite eat enough. I downed a Zipp Fizz for some energy, and though I still wasn't hungry, ate some eggs. An hour later, I still wasn't hungry. Ate some cereal anyway, so I'd have some carbs to burn for the run.

0:00 -- Berkeley has been covered in fog for about 72 hours straight, so it's gray and cool. I put on a long sleeve top, packed my water and GU, and headed out.

0:05 -- heart rate is low, and I'm feeling weak. Not good.

0:10 -- I used to take water every five minutes on the long days. I figured that's a bad idea, because it won't be available that frequently on the race course. I've dropped the frequency to once every ten minutes, which is closer to race conditions, but take two gulps instead of one.

0:15 -- passed Aquatic park. HR is up now, and I'm feeling a bit better.

0:30 -- really feeling my groove kick in. HR is high at 164. Dare I keep it so high? I dare.

0:50 -- GU #1. Huzzah. Oh, and ... what's this? Sunshine! How nice. It's too hot to wear sleeves now, so the shirt comes off. Ladies, aren't you jealous you can't run topless? I know you are.

1:00 -- the GU kicks in, and I'm starting to feel really good. I'm finally adjusting to the 10-minute water intervals.

1:20 -- I'm starting to feel a little stale as I approach the horse tracks. Please, iPod, serve up a good song. HUZZAH! Amazingly, the iPod shuffled out the perfect song. Karen Overton - "Your Loving Arms (Club Mix)". It propelled me through the dog park trail. So groovealicious. Rock on.

1:40 -- GU #2. Feelin good with one hour to go.

1:50 -- I notice some mile markers for a marathon going on. It must have started early, because the only runners I see who look like participants are going very slowly.

2:00 -- I need another good song to do a fast-finish mile, and iPod delivers again with Phynn - "Close Encounter".

2:30 -- I see some runners ahead who crossed paths with me earlier. As I get to them, they ask how far I'm running. "20 miles," I say. Turns out, they're doing the same. We run in together, chatting a bit. They're training for a different marathon. Good times.

2:40 -- Done and done. I feel like a fried egg. Time for some FOOD. And homework. Yuck. On the exciting side, I get to prep for my second-choice firm interview tomorrow! I LIKE the interview process here. All the firms are good, and I just get to pick my favorite, while showing each one what a charming guy I can be. It's like playing dress-up, which I also enjoy. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!

Until next time, dear readers. As always, I love you all.

I know the potato recipe post was getting old. As predicted, the ravages of law school have usurped the time otherwise dedicated to posting on this blog. My life has been filled with lots of this:



... and not enough of this:



Anyway, it's not all work-and-gloom, as perhaps I've impressed upon you. Actually, law school is awesome, and I'm really excited about OCIP. All the employers for which I'm interviewing look like winners, and if I get even a single offer, I'll take it gladly. Boalt is like a win-win freakfest at every level. I mean, check this out. At Arizona, you have to beg and beg to get one of a few limited firm jobs with their on-campus interview program. At Boalt, the employers come and give you free stuff. Case in point, the multi-colored light-up bouncy ball:


Yeah, that's right. This one's from Cooley Godward, which has an office in Broomfield! I hope I got an interview with them. Actually, as I write this, Phase 2 OCIP interviews should be posted! Lemme check real quick ... hm, looks like they haven't posted the interviews yet. Anyway, I'm sure I'll get it, I ranked them real high.

Erin, another Boalt 2L, has let me know she finds this blog entertaining. So, of course, she must make an appearance! I asked her for an action shot, and this is what I got:


Looked very glitzy, so I went black-and-white with it. Looks like a Chanel ad or something. Cheers, Erin!

And now for something completely different! For the GU-loving athletes among you out there, I have the very exciting news that the GU Sports factory is in Berkeley!! (For the non-athletes, GU is a goopy substance that you eat during exercise to replinish complex carbohydrates. I swear by them, and use them in every long-distance workout or race I do. They're fantastic.) I called up the factory and was greeted by a man named Teddy.

"Teddy," I said, "I'm a long-time user of your products. I just moved to Berkeley, and found out your factory is here!"

"That's right, Nick," he replied. "We're neighbors!"

"Could I come take a look at the factory?"

"Of course! Come on down!"

I wasted no time, and last week, went to see the factory. It was surprisingly small for the amount of GU they produce (54,000 GU's per day), in a space no larger than a medium-sized lecture hall). There are three large drums where the GU's are mixed, each one about 5 feet tall and maybe four feet in diameter. They seem small, but one drum makes 18,000 GU's! They run each drum once daily, and sell out every day. That's amazing.


Here are the uncut labels. There's my favorite -- Chocolate Outrage -- on the left.


Here's a stack of their yet-unreleased flavor, Strawberry-Banana, set to debut at some trade show in Las Vegas later this year.


They didn't send me home empty-handed, no sir! I got to try out this new flavor. It tasted quite good (although they ALL taste good in the middle of an 18-mile run). Note that this flavor is one of two caffeine-free GU flavors. I like the caffeine kick most of the time, so I might not buy this flavor when it does come out.

One last thing. I usually sign off my blogs with something to the effect of how I love you all. This practice began when only my family was kind enough to humor me by reading it. Now, with the grotesquely invasive features on Facebook, there are a few more people reading it. So I probably shouldn't say how much I love you guys. But what the hell, I still love ya! Thanks for reading.