January 9, 2007

Kaya the Puppy

This is my dog with a feather in her nose. She does lots of goofy things, like barking at hamsters and jumping into cars when the doors are still closed and wrapping the leash around all four of her legs, but we rarely catch them on film. She's very sweet, and she's kind of cute, but she's not all that intelligent.

Some people brought it to my attention that it's been a while since I've posted, and as I was going through my pictures (because a post without a picture is lame), I realized that most of them are pretty boring. I have some from Christmas, and some from a trip to the climbing gym with Anna and Owen, but everyone who's reading this knows exactly what I've been up to lately. Thus, instead of seeing me posing for the camera with some other people, you get to see my dog with a feather in her nose!

Posted by rgutwin at 10:23 AM | Comments (1)

September 4, 2006

Family Canoe Trip

Desipte foreboding weather, my family and I headed to the Adirondacks this Labor Day Weekend for our desired-annual canoe trip. Owen, Bruce, my mom, and I drove to the launching site on Friday evening, preceeded by my grandparents, Uncle David, and cousin Christopher. Karl and Becca were soon to follow, and we managed to get all the tents set up and everyone fed not too much after my ideal bedtime.

Even though it was supposed to be cold and raining, the weather was actually quite pleasant. We experienced a bit of moisture as we were heading to bed on Saturday night, as well as a light drizzle around dinnertime on Sunday. It was nothing compared to the sideways-driven rain we usually encounter. Thus, there was a disappointing lack of excitement on this canoe trip, although a couple of bees decided to make my vacation a little more memorable. The first bee that stung me--three times--was a little bit understandable, since I paddled up a stream about two feet from where his deceitfully-hidden home was. However, the second attack from an entirely different bee that came a day and a half later was thoroughly confusing. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning with a stinging, throbbing finger, only to discover that a bee had stung me in my sleep! I either said something in my sleep that offended him, or he was some distant relative of the first bee who wanted to seek revenge. Either way, it was not a nice thing to wake up to.

All in all, we had a great trip: the weather was much better than expected, we got a campsite on the island and relatively quiet neighbors, and we created some memories that aren't likely to disappear anytime soon. Hopefully we'll be back again next year!

Posted by rgutwin at 8:19 PM | Comments (1)

July 11, 2006

Hiking Expedition

Owen and I went hiking this past weekend, taking advantage of the gorgeous weather to get out and have some fun. Our plan was to hike for a couple of hours on Friday night, stay overnight at the Cooley Glen Shelter, and complete a 9-mile loop back to the car the next day. Unfortunately, we arrived at the trail a bit later than we expected, leaving us with only an hour of daylight and 3.2 miles to attempt to travel. Although we had resigned ourselves to camping somewhere along the trail, a few estimates and mathematical calculations indicated that we could make it to the shelter before the sunlight completely vanished, which is exactly what happened. We traveled the nine miles on Saturday in a much more leisurely fashion, ending the hike with only a couple of blisters on the bottom of my feet and fewer than a dozen complaints from Owen.

Posted by rgutwin at 9:48 AM | Comments (3)

June 6, 2006

Vermont City Marathon

Owen raced in the Vermont City Marathon on Memorial Day Weekend, and Anna and I biked into Burlington to cheer him on. Although it was difficult to maneuver the tandem over a course with thousands of runners and through a crowd of even more thousands of spectators, we managed to see him at the start, the finish, and four other points along the course. It was obvious that some runners were madly jealous Anna and I were Owen's cheering fans instead of theirs, but we tried to encourage the other runners when we could. However, when we weren't on the course cheering for Owen, we were usually madly biking to the next place we wanted to cheer him on because he was running so darn fast. He finished the marathon with an amazing time of 3:07:01, placing 73rd overall and running at a pace of 7:08 per mile. Also impressive was his almost complete lack of any sign that he had just finished a marathon after he stopped running: he looked like he was about ready to go out for another easy run! The weather was quite warm and sunny, which was wonderful for the spectators and somewhat miserable for the marathoners. Overall, Anna and I had great fun cheering, Owen had a spectacular race, and a few people are probably still mad at me for getting the tandem in the way of the course...

Posted by rgutwin at 9:02 AM | Comments (1)

March 26, 2006

Springtime

Although most of this past winter has felt like spring, the weather has officially begun to consistently resemble such a season! Since we haven't had nearly any snow stay on the ground this winter for longer than a week or so, the outdoor appearance is not changing drastically. However, when the high for the day is 50 degrees as opposed to 30, it makes a big difference to Becca's hands when she ventures out on the water for her daily row! The sun and warmer temperatures are greatly appreciated, especially since I can't take advanage of any snow that may happen to fall anyway.

I can't believe that it's already the end of March. I have less than 50 days left until graduation, and it feels like the semester only started a few days ago. Unfortunately, time seems to fly both when I'm having fun and when I'm incredibly busy...

Posted by rgutwin at 6:56 PM | Comments (1)

February 28, 2006

Ooh! A Bunny!

Look! It's a bunny with a cookie!

This entry is merely to grant the request of those who would prefer if I did not allow a full month to pass without any entries. Exciting, eh? :-P

Posted by rgutwin at 8:43 PM | Comments (1)

January 17, 2006

Back to Geneva

Anna and I arrived in Geneva safely on Sunday afternoon. The roads were pretty icy in Vermont, but the driving was all clear once we hit New York. Anna is now lucky enough to experience all HWS has to offer for a few days...entirely from within my unit. She ventured onto campus with me yesterday for a few minutes, but other than that she's been sampling quite a few different forms of entertainment: namely, a) the internet, and b) DVDs. She's probably fairly bored, but I'll drive her back to Ithaca tomorrow morning and it will no longer concern me.

Classes have been going well. My two mathematics courses sound interesting: an introduction to wavelets and mathematical modeling. From math modeling on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I head directly to ancient philosophy, which should be quite the transition. And then I finish my Tuesday and Thursday afternoons with Tibetan mandala painting, taught by an incredibly interesting, real-live Tibetan monk. Hopefully I'll find some remnants of an artistic side before the end of the semester...

Posted by rgutwin at 7:20 PM | Comments (1)

January 11, 2006

Camel's Hump

Owen and I snowshoed up Camel's Hump yesterday, which was more of a hike for me because I ditched my snowshoes less than halfway up. It was a beautiful day, albeit somewhat cloudy when we reached the summit, and there was plenty of snow on the trees to get Owen nice and snowy when I felt like it. Unfortunately, he did succeed in knocking me down at this clearing, but he might have hurt his hand doing it, so I guess we're even...

Posted by rgutwin at 9:36 AM | Comments (5)

December 25, 2005

Merry Christmas!

We have all finally finished our Christmas shopping, wrapped our presents, and stacked them in an incredibly unorganized manner under the tree. The Gutwin children have already experienced two gift-giving sessions this year, and we're ready for the grand finale: our presents to and from each other and our mom. We went over to Dad's on Thursday evening and to our grandparents' on Christmas Eve, which was highly enjoyable and less hectic than it sounds.

Of course, Christmas is not all about the presents. Nor is it all about the six inches of snow on the ground, the holiday music playing in almost every building and vehicle, or the trillions of lights strung in, around, and on most inanimate objects. To me, Christmas is not only about family, because I get to see them a lot throughout the year. Christmas holds a unique spirit of generosity, forgiveness, and genuine appreciation for all mankind that isn't necessarily demonstrated by all for the majority of the year. Obviously, it holds religious significance for many of us: a great celebration of the fact that our God loved us enough to send his own child down to our Earth in order to take responsibility for what we cannot. Christmas encompasses the feelings of goodwill and love that I strive to emulate in my relationships; not only with those I know well, but also complete strangers who deserve the same respect and consideration as everyone else. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and may you experience exactly what you're looking for this holiday season.

Posted by rgutwin at 1:07 AM | Comments (2)

December 13, 2005

Exams

Finally, exam time has come upon us college students, and many are anxious to head home for the holidays and to forget about the looming grand finale of schoolwork. I had one exam yesterday, a paper due today, and two more exams on Thursday, after which I will likely run to my car in order to beat the nasty storm that is supposed to hit Albany and Williston on Friday. For now, it is back to work I go, although I am keeping a very close eye on this "wintry mix" with the unhelpful knowledge that my snow tires are waiting for me at home...

Posted by rgutwin at 1:38 PM | Comments (1)

December 4, 2005

Snow!

I woke up this morning to a substantial blanket of snow covering the ground! Although I have already seen plenty of snow this winter at home for Thanksgiving, it's nice to see it in Geneva, too, for the last two weeks of the semester. Now, I just hope that the snow stays off the roads when I head home on the 16th, because my car is seriously lacking in the snow tire department...

Posted by rgutwin at 9:33 AM | Comments (1)

November 29, 2005

Dessert Appetizer

So, Anna and I were in charge of the dessert appetizer this Thanksgiving. Not to be confused with a regular appetizer, or a full-blown dessert course, our dish was served between dinner and dessert. As you can see, we used Teddy Grahams, Mint Choco Chip ice cream, and chocolate Shell to create a culinary wonder.

It is important to note that Anna and I have practiced our technique, and it takes incredible skill to be able to make this appetizer. We are still perfecting our techniqe and making slight modifications to our ingredient list, but overall the dish was a GREAT SUCCESS. Although some doubted the culinary value of Teddy Grahams (ahem, FATHER), it was quite obvious when the course was served that it was particularly enjoyed by those most skeptical.

You see, the best thing about Teddy Grahamwiches is that they are so small, and thus it is easy to enjoy their taste without ruining one's appetite for the grander desserts yet to come. Be forewarned: there are several unforseen obstacles in making this dish, and it cannot be successfully produced with minimal effort. It was difficult to get them as aesthetically pleasing as possible, but come next Thanksgiving, our dish will be even more improved. And MANY THANKS to the creative JENNA KATZ, as she developed the chocolate coating idea. Our Teddy Grahamwiches would have been much less impressive if they didn't involve this important step.

Posted by rgutwin at 10:20 PM | Comments (6)

November 23, 2005

Home

Anna and I arrived home safely last night after a long and semi-dangerous drive. It was icy, snowy, and dark, but we pulled into the driveway at 11:30 pm unharmed and ready to jump into bed. I spent the day doing some much-needed laundry, shoveling the four-to-six inches of snow off our driveway, and catching up with some friends and family.

Tomorrow, Anna and I head over to Dad's house to tackle Thanksgiving dinner. We aren't going to be super-involved with the main course, but we're in charge of the dessert appetizer, which is going to be DELICIOUS. Then, it's two more full days at home before we need to make the drive back to central New York to finish up our final three weeks of the term...

Posted by rgutwin at 11:15 PM | Comments (2)

October 31, 2005

Head of the Fish

Dan, Cassie, Frances, JM, Gardner, Gavin, Tim, Me, Edwina

The Hobart and William Smith crew teams finished their fall seasons at the Head of the Fish this weekend, racing a total of 9 boats between both teams. Originally, I was only going to race once, but Sandra encountered a little issue when a few Hobart novices quit shortly before the race. Thus, the HWS mixed 8+ entry suddenly needed new rowers, and Sandra decided to create a Class of 2006 boat. Coxed by Dan Gilbert, Cassie, Frances, JM, Gardner, Gavin, Tim, Edwina, and I raced down the course a second time immediately following our respective varsity 8+ events. Rowing with men in the engine room is my new favorite way to race, because we spent a lot less time through the water and a lot more time on the recovery at a 32. We passed at least half a dozen boats on the way down the less-than-12-minute course, and won the event by almost a full minute! We had a great time, and it felt like an excellent way to end my final fall season at the Colleges.

Posted by rgutwin at 9:43 PM | Comments (4)

October 16, 2005

Living Situation

For those of you who are interested, I'm posting more photos of my living situation. My dad and Beth visited me this weekend and brought up some window decorations that my Grandma sent my way, so I thought it would be nice for Grandma to see how everything turned out. Notice how well everything matches, even though it was gathered completely separately! Very impressive.

Moving downstairs, here is our common room. The furniture is a collection of Savery's, Allison's, and Frances's...darn my miniature car and six hour travel distance! The artwork above the futon is a piece we have checked out from the library for the year and (ahem, illegally) nailed to the wall...

Turning around, we have the kitchen, which has been working surprisingly well for us. It's slightly too small when more than one person is trying to prepare food at the same time, but we're making the most of the situation. The painting on the wall there is one Frances purchased in South Africa.

And finally, this is the view from outside our building. There are about 30 O'Dells units and four or five buildings, which means quite a few units in one building. We're in Unit 6, and if you squint really hard and make funny faces, you can see my window above the smaller tree there. If you can't see it, don't worry: you're not missing much. Let me know if you want to see anything else. I have left out images of the less-interesting areas of our condo (hallways, bathrooms, closets, etc). I hope this helps you guys visualize where I'm living!

Posted by rgutwin at 6:19 PM | Comments (2)

October 12, 2005

Cold, Gray, and Wet

The perfect rowing weather! While this forecast looks rather miserable on the screen and feels rather moist during the day, when the time comes for practice, one couldn't ask for more comfortable rowing conditions. It's a little chilly before the boat starts moving, but once the coxswains let us start rowing, we get rather warm rather quickly. Many others on the team will probably disagree with me, and I can understand how it would be somewhat difficult to motivate yourself to spend lots of time outdoors in the rainy 50-degree weather. However, I have learned to embrace the rainy times, especially during the peak of our on-the-water fall season.

Posted by rgutwin at 2:32 PM | Comments (3)

September 23, 2005

My Height is Still Unsurpassed...

Well, at least I'm still the tallest one on the team, somewhat to my objection. I try to argue that I'm under 6 feet, but Sandra still doesn't believe me. Maybe I've grown over an inch in the past few years. Maybe I just stand really, really tall. Or maybe everyone who's measuring themselves against me are shorter than they think they are. It doesn't really matter to me, but Sandra likes to say that I'm 6 feet tall. It's good to have 6' rowers. Not good to have 6' coxswains. In fact, it's a really, really bad idea to have 6' coxswains.

So I've been out sick since Tuesday, because I have unfortunately contracted some inconvenient illness. However, I have found it very interesting to ride in the launch during practice and to watch the rest of my team row. We had morning practice today, which was somewhat easier to wake up for knowing I didn't have to row. I threw on a pair of jeans and a rain jacket (by the way, not very fun to go speeding along in the launch when it's raining out...and you don't have any rain pants on...and you're in jeans...) and rode in the launch for the first three 15' pieces. Unfortunately, after the scheduled third piece, the crew still had one more piece to complete, and two people needed to be at class in less than 10 minutes. Seeing as how we were a 10 minute row from the dock, Sandra was encountered with an interesting predicament.

Guess what happened? Conveniently, one rower and one coxswain needed to get back to the dock ASAP, so Sandra jumped in the Stoer and coxed them home, and I jumped in the Taz and stroked it home. The assistant coach drove the launch back with Kenzie and Hannah, and I found myself in a rowing shell, in the rain, wearing jeans. Luckily they were stretch jeans...

How many people can honestly say they have rowed in jeans? Let me just say that I wouldn't choose such a material for our uniforms.

Posted by rgutwin at 8:51 PM | Comments (2)

August 28, 2005

Windows

Here you go, Grama! Hopefully you can find something to help these... (Click on either picture to make it bigger)

Posted by rgutwin at 9:56 PM | Comments (3)

August 27, 2005

O'Dells 6A

Welcome to my new room in Geneva, New York! It's much bigger than I expected, and it has a neat little hallway, and the closet is extra-extra large, so I'm very happy with my living situation this year. Plus, I'm in a condo-type unit, with a full kitchen (dishwasher included!), "dining" table, and a living room area, which is nice. I don't have any pictures of the common areas yet, because we still have a lot of decorating to do down there. But if you go to the top of the stairs, and take an immediate left, there I am! This picture is a view from my doorway. (Notice the illegally-hung coat rack, which is graciously on loan from Anna. It's not completely secure yet, because the screw on the left isn't long enough to grab the stud, but I'm working on that.)

And here's the main view of my room. Not too exciting, but do notice the nicely-colored lamp in the background. My desk is to the right of the camera at this angle. The furniture was arranged differently when I got here, so then I moved it all, and then I woke up this morning and decided to do even more furniture moving. But I think I finally got things the way I want them, so that's good.

Here's the view from my window. I'm not particularly excited about looking out onto a parking lot, but at least I'm not in one of the units that just looks into another unit's windows! This morning, there was a football game of sorts happening on that field, which was kind of confusing since Hobart has a really nice field about 100 meters away...

So that's it! I hope that most of you can get over here to see the condo for yourselves! I'll post more pictures of the rest of the place as soon as we get some things organized and decorated.

Posted by rgutwin at 4:58 PM | Comments (3)

August 23, 2005

Urban Adventure

A few weeks ago, my father and I competed in the second annual Urban Adventure here in Burlington. Finally, RunVermont.org has posted some photos from the event, so I decided it was probably about time to write a post on our experience. If you've seen The Amazing Race on TV, you're probably somewhat familiar with the general concept: we were given about a dozen clues that led us to various checkpoints around Burlington. The distance between each clue was no more than two miles, and you were allowed to use any resources to solve the clues (yes, even the internet), provided your resource-checker wasn't working for another team. It must have looked pretty funny, because there were about 40 people running around Burlington with race numbers on, cell phones glues to their ears, and books in their hands they were attempting to read while sprinting across city streets.

Considering that we ran about 15 miles without any training, my father and I did remarkably well. I'm actually really impressed with my father, because he hadn't done any sort of training since the marathon, and he was keeping up with Miss I-Workout-Two-to-Three-Hours-A-Day. Probably the most annoying part of the race was right at the end, because the final clue couldn't be found anywhere online. Poor Karl and Becca were at my dad's house online, frantically trying to find out how many trains passed through Burlington on an annual basis in the early 1900s. They were even calling historical societies, but to no avail. Finally, we found the answer on a plaque on the opposite side of the train station, but now without about 10 minutes of frantic searching. Overall, we came in third with a time of 2:44:02, and we had the third-fastest orienteering time. More importantly, though, we had tons of fun, and we're definitely planning on an even more competitive time next year.

Posted by rgutwin at 5:25 PM | Comments (2)

July 16, 2005

Hiking

One of the best things about living in Vermont is that there are so many opportunities to do things outdoors, away from noisy cities and bright lights. I think the cows are the singlemost enjoyable feature of this state, but outdoor activities come in a close second. Karl and I went hiking on Friday and Saturday this week, and we had a great time. We hiked up the Sterling Pond Trail from Route 108 to, you guessed it, Sterling Pond for about a mile. Then we followed the Long Trail for 1.5 miles or so up Madonna Mountain, which was lots of ups and downs, but it wasn't too difficult. Karl kept the pace rather comfortable, as he was following behind me and I figured it wouldn't be very nice to disappear out of sight. Madonna Mountain was cool because we ski at Smuggler's Notch a lot, and they have a chairlift that goes to the top of the mountain. Against Karl's protests, I took a short break on one of the chairs facing down the mountain. The breeze felt wonderful, and the view was spectacular.

After enough time on the Long Trail, we took Chilcoot Trail to Beaver Meadow Lodge, where we spent the night. We were excited to see the sign at the interstection informing us that the lodge was a mere half mile away. Little did we know that the half mile was at the bottom of an incredibly steep descent. All-in-all, though, the hike only took us three hours from the start to Beaver Meadow Lodge, which was definitely impressive considering we ascended and descended 1300 feet in that time frame. We ate dinner and spent the night at the lodge, which was surprisingly comfortable. The hike back up and down the mountain was relatively uneventful, and we arrived back at the car just in time to have a nice little picnic before heading home. I know that my quads are a little sore right now from all that extended use, so I hope that Karl is still able to walk tomorrow...

Posted by rgutwin at 2:34 PM | Comments (1)

June 19, 2005

Kismet's Rug

At last, I have some updates on Kismet for those of you who are interested. As most of us are aware, Kismet has chosen me to be his lifelong mate, or at least until someone better comes along. He has recently entered into some sort of nesting phase, and he roams the house looking for the optimal home for our babies. I have tried explaining that I won't fit into most of the nests he picks out, but to no avail: his favorite locations are usually under beds or in impossibly cramped corners.

Naturally, Kisi is very protective of all of his potential nests, and he sometimes forgets what he is doing and scares me away. His bites can actually get pretty viscious when he decides that he's protecting his unborn offspring. The common denominator for these nests seems to be carpet, as he has an unusually strong attraction to any type of carpet on the ground.

We have an industrial-strength floor mat in the entryway of our house, and whenever Kismet happens to be on the kitchen floor, he usually finds his way over to this carpet near the door. One afternoon, my father came over to pick me up, and I didn't hear him walk inside. Since Kismet's cage was in the kitchen at the time, Kismet apparently decided that my dad wasn't worthy to be standing on his newlyfound nest. So, Kismet climbed down off of his cage onto the floor, and swiftly ran (or at least, tripped over his feet in a fast-paced manner) to bite my father's shoes. Now, if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, the most important thing to remember is to never try to pick Kismet up. Because as protective as he is against your feet, he is even more protective against a hand offered in his general direction. My father was not yet aware of this warning, so he tried to return Kisi to his cage and was promptly bitten and chased further away from the floormat.

Kisi's nesting habits have become the daily standard around the house, so Mom, Anna, and I have become aware of the potential locations for Kismet's viscious attacks. We're not sure if this nesting behavior is just a phase, or if Kismet has developed a permanent affinity for small, dark, carpeted spaces, but I will be sure to keep you posted on any change in his behavior...

Posted by rgutwin at 10:31 AM | Comments (1)

May 30, 2005

Vermont City Marathon

I ran with the RehabGYM relay team in the Vermont City Marathon yesterday, bringing up the average pace for a total time of 3:54:08, which is 37 seconds slower than our time last year. However, given that we had a slightly different team this year, and that my mom's training for her 5.5 mile leg consisted of one mile the day before the marathon, I think that we did remarkably well. I ran my leg approximately 2 minutes faster than last year for a time of 41 minutes for 5.6 miles.

My dad and friend ran the whole marathon, along with a couple of co-workers and aquantainces, so it was fun to hang around and watch the crowd go by. I don't think a full marathon will be in the works for me for quite some time, but there has been some discussion of a potential half-marathon for next year. Unfortunately, I will be competitvely rowing in the spring, which will mean lots and lots of sprinting, so running 13 miles might prove almost unrealistically difficult. We'll see...

Posted by rgutwin at 12:35 PM | Comments (2)

May 23, 2005

Home Sweet Home

For all those of you who are wondering, I have arrived back home in Vermont safe and sound. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been incredibly cooperative with my ideal. Still, it's nice to be home, despite the very rainy 60 degree climate. The forecast this week: tons and tons of rain, and lots of grey skies. Wonderful. Hopefully it won't get hot and sunny just in time for the marathon, though. I'm running the last leg again this year, and my dad and friend are running the whole thing! That'll be fun for them.

I'm back at work already, spending some quality time at the RehabGYM. Actually, the vast majority of my waking hours are spent at the gym, as I work out in the mornings and get paid to work in the afternoons / evenings. The people are fun and the work isn't bad, though, so I'm not complaining. Stop by sometime if you're in the area! And if you're not in the area, make sure you get in touch with me soon so I can tell you all about my semester in South Africa!

Posted by rgutwin at 7:14 PM | Comments (4)

May 10, 2005

Captain!

I don't have much time, but I just wanted to notify everyone that I was voted as a co-captain for my crew team next year! I'm very excited that the team chose Susie and I to help lead them next year, because I think we're going to have some pretty amazing speed!

Posted by rgutwin at 11:44 AM | Comments (2)

January 12, 2005

Changes

Note that I have moved my training entries off of the main page so that those who don't care about how I physically abuse myself don't have to read about it. For the rest of you, don't worry: I will still be updating the training section, and the entries haven't gone very far. You can either click on the date you're interested in on the calendar to the right, or you can click on the category labeled "Training". This way, my adventures in the distant country of South Africa will maintain front page status.

Posted by rgutwin at 7:05 PM | Comments (3)

December 6, 2004

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to my virtual journal for next semester. I'm leaving for South Africa on January 17th (a hint to all my friends who need to make sure they see me before it's too late...) and will be spending the semester at the University of the Western Cape, which is about 20 minutes outside of Cape Town. So, instead of sending out all those annoying emails that enter into the "Spam" category rather quickly, I'll write my adventures here and you can visit whenever you get the chance. And if you fail to visit and comment, your absence will be noted: we will have things to discuss when I get home at the beginning of June.

So check back when my departure date approaches, and hopefully I'll be able to stay in touch with everyone left stranded on this frigid continent as I'm enjoying summer in South Africa...

Posted by rgutwin at 9:58 PM | Comments (7)