After a year hiatus I am back in the saddle. I have been training for a few weeks now for the Accenture Chicago Triathlon which is to take place 27 August 2006. My goal is to crush my time from 2004. You can see the breakdown below:

Overall Rank: 1001 of 1271
Class Rank: 94 of 126

Swim: 00:26:57
Swim Rank: 1205
.75 km

Trans1: 00:04:50

Bike: 00:50:03
Bike Rank: 708
MPH: 16.3
22 km

Trans2: 00:02:45

Run: 00:31:03
Run Rank: 1048
Pace: 00:10:01
5 km

Final: 01:55:39

I am a little embarrassed by the time and rank but in my defense I was still full blown into that nasty habit I kicked a year ago. Regardless, my training has already been better than my times above and I am only a week in. I will try and keep everyone up to date with my training progress and I think I have a pretty ingenious way of doing it. More later…

Many apologies for the long hiatus from the blogosphere. While there are plenty of excuses none would be sufficient to quell the disgust I’m sure you are all feeling. Without further ado I present to you pictures from the recent birthday bash at Jin Ju. There were many a drinks consumed and who can forget the wonderful cupcakes. I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking…

On another note, I will be releasing a new little nugget I have concocted at Dissident Design very soon. While I would love to give a solid date I am still not comfortable with the development progression. Soon though, very soon. I will, however, provide a little clue: Google Maps API.

A new endeavor by friend and entrepreneur Jennifer Linder just kicked off today. Her new site, Bling Baby, was developed by Dissident Design. When you have a moment or two please check out the new site and all it has to offer. Please check out her press release below:

Hello Everyone!

As some of you know I’ve spent the last few months getting Bling Baby up and running. I’m happy to announce that we are ready to “GO LIVE”. The thought behind Bling Baby is to create personalized designs for children that are affordable and adorable! Please feel free to check out my website and to pass it along to any friends or family who might be interested.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way, I couldn’t have done it without you!

www.bling-baby.com

Jennifer

Oh yeah, and buy something while you’re there!

I apoligize for the ridiculously long delay in posting. As can often be the case around the holidays I let the season get the better of me. For those seeking stimulation of the visual sort I have updated the gallery here. There are two new albums: one for our trip to New York City and the other for our friends’ holiday party.

Please enjoy the pictures and hopefully I’ll have a little more time in the near future to post something a little more meaningful…

While I have often written glibly about numerous topics on this blog I feel today is an appropriate time and place to speak seriously. This fall I have taken two trips to Bloomington, IN, to spend time with my family – more specifically, my father’s side of the family. My reason for visiting Bloomington has been two-fold, first and foremost was to see my Uncle, Dennis Wright, and his family and the other was to, as I see it, revel in my nostolgiac glory days when I attended Indiana University.

For those of you unfamiliar with my Uncle I will give you some background. The middle child of three (my father the eldest), Denny has always been the Uncle that did almost the exact opposite of my father. Where my father was conservative my Uncle was liberal. While my Uncle moved away from Ft. Wayne, my father stayed. Where my Uncle was sarcastically poignat, my father was fastidiously obtuse. Their wits, while obviously of the same intellect, were clearly diametrically opposed. This is said not to detract from either man’s personalities because I have met no finer role models than my father and his brother. These statements are made to suggest their differences from my perspective. Obviously, growing up your parents are the bellweather for adults. It was refreshing, and at times earth shattering, to see someone as different, yet still the same, as my Uncle.

There was, and always has been, something unique about my Uncle, something I could never place my finger on. My first memories of my Uncle stem from movies. He was the first to expose me to the wonders of the big screen. From Star Wars to Indiana Jones, his legacy will always be, at least for me, that first look at Hollywood from an adult vantage point. He challenged me to look at the movie from a perspective different from its mere entertainment value. While this anectdote clearly falls short of his true character and his impact on my adolescence, it nonetheless portrays a man that cared deeply about my exposure to aspects of life I had never contemplated. He was also the first person to challenge my understanding of the world around me – but not in a direct and confrontational way. For that I am forever grateful.

My Uncle is suffering from a degenerative neurological disease that has left him wheelchair-bound and dependent upon others. While I say the word dependent, never mistake that for despondent. I have been amazed by his resilience to continue life the way he always has. I have never found him more humorous nor more witty. My conversations with him this fall have cemented my adolescent thoughts of his strength. I am honored to call him my Uncle. I love you Uncle Denny and thank you for all that you have done for me – whether you realized it or not.

Saturday night was a raucous good time that started out with a little dinner at Uncommon Ground. Rachel and I were lucky enough to be joined by my cousin Jon and his girlfriend Sarah. They came down from Milwaukee for the weekend to celebrate Sarah’s birthday. They also checked out a show at the Metro, one of Chicago’s best music venues in my humble opinion. Dinner was pretty good but the company was much better.

After dinner we met up with Rachel’s brother and some of his friends at Goodbar to celebrate his birthday. Goodbar is clearly not one of my favorite Chicago night spots but it will do in a pinch. After getting our fill of drinks at Goodbar we walked down the street to a Chicago classis: Kingston Mines: a northside jazz and blues club that has, until Saturday night, only been a rumor to me. Upon entry I was somewhat shocked to see what, to me, looked much like what a country and western bar would look like. Obviously, this is quite a different picture than the one I had prematurely painted in my head. With two stages and lots of tables the place was quite packed with enough second-hand smoke to make me think of nothing other than that. However, the music was lively and, again, the company more than made up for the otherwise dismal surroundings.

You can see pictures from the festivities here and also on my Flickr account.

It’s official, I started on Monday at Kroll in the Financial Advisory Services group. The office is located in the loop at Wacker and Madison (see map). I will be working in the Forensic Financial Investigations and Litigation Consulting section. It should be a challenging and exciting opportunity. There will be some travel involoved but at this point it looks pretty light.

After close to 4 months off it is nice to get back into the rat race.

It is with great honor that I introduce Abigail Jane Austin to the blog world. Kathy and Bryan Austin became proud and beaming parents of a bouncing baby girl on November 6, 2005 at 1:36 p.m. Little Abigail weighed in at 7 lbs. 10 oz. and made a good stretch to 21 inches. Be sure to check her out at www.abigailaustin.net. Also, be sure to check out her great gallery section. There are some cute pics of her in burrito mode as well as nice pictures of friends and family.

Congratulations to the Austins!

Over the past week a dear friend of mine has been in town from Santa Cruz, California. My friend, Erikson, grew up here in Chicago and he introduced me to many of the famous, or not so famous, eating establishments in this city of eating establishments. Most of these places I experienced in law school and, being on the starving graduate student budget, was not able to really go all out. I enjoyed them the best I could, however.

Anyway, with Erikson back in town he has inspired me, or more accurately drafted me, to hit all the old haunts. Tuesday, we had lunch at Oggi Trattoria, an Italian joint on Grand Avenue just west of Ogden (see map). I had, quite possibly, the singular example of divinity in the form of a chicken parmigiana sandwich. My one complaint was that I never once had this sandwich in the 6+ years I have lived in this beautiful city. Upon arrival, Erikson, who formerly lived a block away, is greeted by owner/operator Franky. And yes, picture all the mobbed-up-wise-guys you can recollect and you have Franky. His non-chalant air of superiority is very reserved but commanding. You immediately offer respect and know not to would be a terrible insult. Happily, the food is as commanding as Franky and as warming as his manners.

Wednesday, Erikson and I both recruited our friend and Jersey native, Bill Linder, to enjoy what can enthusiastically be dubbed a Chicago institution: Manny’s Coffee Shop & Deli. Started in 1942, Manny’s is a cafeteria-style Jewish deli with all the fixins. On advise I ordered the pastrami sandwich and tempted fate by ordering a bowl of matza ball soup. If only heaven were half as good as this sandwich. The pastrami literally melted in my mouth. No where else on earth could I bear witness to such monumental utopian desire. It was manna from heaven and, believe you me, I am understating its significance in the culinary lexicon. The coup de grace was none other than that beautiful Jewish contribution: the matza ball soup. Made with real schmaltz, those desirous little balls were feather light and floating in a chicken broth of unparallelled goodness. I cannot wait for an excuse to go back and enjoy a little of Chicago all over again. Chef recommends!

Saturday night we had a lovely evening with Ellen and Chris Butler – our friends from this previous post – at the Cozy Love Bungalow (aka our small apartment). Dinner included fish tacos and grilled vegatables along with a nice cheesecake. I hope our food was as tasty as the food Ellen and Chris served us while at their house.

During the course of our evening I learned of Ellen’s interest in Friendster. I vaguely remember signing up for a Friendster account sometime last year. In fact, I think it was a year ago to the month. Regardless, Friendster was, and still is, a social site where one can connect with other “friends” through a series of requests and confirmations. Amazingly, after adding just three people to my friends list I am now connected to 186 people through 2 degrees of separation and 6,878 people through 3 degrees of separation. Pretty amazing. I’m looking forward to playing around a little more with Friendster and I owe it all to Ellen – thanks!

Ellen also drew my attention to a mutual friend’s blog, Sharna’s My Blog. I was very impressed with her writing and will venture to say I will be hitting it on a recurring basis. In fact, I added it to the sidebar of this blog. While I am clearly not as political in my postings it is refreshing to read a well articulated and organized thought – regardless of whether I agree with all that is written.

Thanks again to the Butlers for gracing us with their presence. We had a wonderful time and are looking forward to doing it again.