The Manlius Formation

Enjoy this photo from Nanny and Poppy’s this weekend.

This is what it looks like:

Well, if it’s the end of the triathlon season, that means a few things:

1) I get to sleep in later and train lighter to give my body a break until the serious off-season training starts. The problem is that the sleeping in and light workouts started a month ago. Oops.

2) I usually gain a few pounds since I don’t change my eating habits, and all my shorts start to get a little snug.

3) The end-of-season CNY TRI Club picnic takes place at Jamesville Beach^[1], sponsored and catered this year by Bella Domani, which is owned and operated by one of our own club members, Brian Lang. Thanks, Brian, for the awesome catering!

My favorite part about the picnic is the kids’ triathlon. Daniel and Thomas both participated, along with about 15 other kids, and everyone did great. Way to go kids!

More photos in the gallery.

1. Site of next year’s inaugural Ironman 70.3 Syracuse. Woo-hoo! [back]

I hope you enjoy this melodic fusion of some of my favorite things as much as I did. ^[1]

1. I originally discovered this at the Bad Astronomy blog. [back]

Yesterday was the big day for The Manlius Formation (the triathlon relay team, not the website). It was an absolutely beautiful day, although a little hot for the run, and we had great fun.

It was a little tight with well over 600 people^[1] entering the water, but it went pretty smoothly.

Here we are, all smiles after the race. Check out the Skinnyman 2009 gallery for more photos.

OK, so you may recall that I challenged my teammates to better their times by 10% over last year’s times. Well, the results are in, and they’re mixed.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. 615 individual participants and 20 relay team swimmers [back]

You spend a lot of time outside.

Sometimes it rains on you, and you just have to play through.

Both offer a spectrum of possible difficulty levels.

• You can hit the links at a brutally technical, hazard-ridden, members-only course – if you can afford the $500K annual club membership – while sipping martinis from your golf cart’s cooler, or you can hike the public par 3 in your sandals, half drunk, and play the front 9 hoping you don’t lose the only ball you have. Or you can find a happy middle-ground.
• You can camp at the EZ-Kamp Kampground in your fifth wheel trailer with triple slide-outs and satellite TV, or you can go into the woods with a roll of toilet paper and a Rambo knife. Or you can find a happy middle ground.

You have to put in some effort while you’re doing it, so it’s not relaxing in and of itself when you’re in the moment. The primary joy is in the reminiscing:

• “Remember when John and Chris argued over whose ball was whose after they both shanked 15-yard worm-burner drives directly into the ground? Good times.”
• “Remember when Thomas and Daniel played in the mud after an all-day rainstorm, and then couldn’t wash up because the electricity to the campground’s well-pump was out? Good times.”

Can you think of any more similarities?

While you’re thinking, check out the photos from our family golf trip, I mean camping trip, to Lansdowne, Ontario last week. Fore!

Apparently, yes.

After a boat tour during our recent camping trip to Canada^[1] we stopped off at a restaurant on the shore of the St. Lawrence River. One interesting thing about traveling in Ontario, as you probably already know, is that everything is in French and English.

As I was admiring the Heinz Ketchup and Relish labels, I noticed that neither contained high fructose corn syrup. This piqued my curiosity since HFCS is the first or second ingredient in nearly every packaged food product in the U.S.

I came home eager to do some research and see if Canada has something on us here. Have they found a way to force this evil ingredient to be banned from food? ^[2]

Alas, my joy was short-lived.

The second ingredient in the relish was glucose-fructose, which is apparently Canadian for “HFCS.” This isn’t surprising since HFCS is corn syrup which has had a percentage of its glucose enzymatically converted into fructose.

As for the ketchup, it had “liquid sugar” listed as ingredient two, but a quick check at the Sugar Association website gives this information about liquid sugar:

Liquid Sugar

Liquid sugars
There are several types of liquid sugar. Liquid sugar (sucrose) is white granulated sugar that has been dissolved in water before it is used. Liquid sugar is ideal for products whose recipes first require sugar to be dissolved. Amber liquid sugar is darker in color and can be used in foods where brown color is desired.

Invert sugar
Sucrose can be split into its two component sugars (glucose and fructose). This process is called inversion, and the product is called invert sugar. Commercial invert sugar is a liquid product that contains equal amounts of glucose and fructose. Because fructose is sweeter than either glucose or sucrose, invert sugar is sweeter than white sugar. Commercial liquid invert sugars are prepared as different mixtures of sucrose and invert sugar. For example total invert sugar is half glucose and half fructose, while 50% invert sugar (half of the sucrose has been inverted) is one-half sucrose, one-quarter glucose and one-quarter fructose. Invert sugar is used mainly by food manufacturers to retard the crystallization of sugar and to retain moisture in the packaged food. Which particular invert sugar is used is determined by which function – retarding crystallization or retaining moisture – is required.

Home cooks make invert sugar whenever a recipe calls for a sugar to be boiled gently in a mixture of water and lemon juice.

To all this I say: Meh.

1. more in a later post [back]
2. It’s a well-known fact that tee-ball, the NY Times crossword puzzle, and HFCS were invented by the devil. Well, not really, but they should all be experienced in moderation. See this interesting post for some HFCS background if you’re interested. [back]

You may recall my earlier post on the tomato blight issues I encountered this year. I have a few updates for you:

Fact one: while traveling through my neighbor’s yard on the way to another neighbor’s yard, I noticed that his tomato plants were doing fine. These plants came from the same plastic egg-carton seedling holder thingie two of mine came from. Fact two: the tomatoes on the heirloom plants are way more fungusy (is that a word?) than the two I got from my neighbor. These facts make me change my mind about the root of the fungus infection. Sorry, neighbor.

With that confession out of the way…

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Just a quick note to point you to gallery additions from about a month ago. In late July we headed up to my parents’ trailer at Russell Brook campground. We had a nice visit, including a belated b-day celebration for my mom:

Poppy and Thomas had fun as well:

Check out the Russell Brook gallery for more photos at the trailer.