After what seemed like an exhaustive search through the list, I wasn't able to find anyone I recognized who hadn't already been done, so I asked Kluurs if he minded being the first to be "recycled."

He happily obliged, though I'm sure the happiness was due to his upstanding character, and not genuine excitement for having us probe him with personal questions.

So I'll start -
Kluurs, I'm fascinated by your experience in running (as I've never been much good at it).
Can you tell me a little more about it?
How long have you been running, and have you done a marathon?
If so, how many marathons have you done?

What does your training look like - do you try to keep up a specific regimen year round, or do you train hard for specific events?

Thanks!

OK, there are a few things I still need to know.

1.) How many times have been to Switzerland?

2.) What is your favorite candy?

3.) Do you or any of your siblings have an autographed photo of Frank Sinatra?

4.) Assume you are stranded in an airport for 24 hours. You head to the crappy little bookstore/newsstand in the terminal to find something to read. Your choices are the top 20 titles on the NYT bestseller list, an assortment of general interest periodicals, and a local and several out-of-town major newspapers. What will you purchase? (You have an unlimited budget thanks to your new job's expense account.)

5.) Joliet or Elgin?

6.) Should I be worried?

How are the little birdies doing?

What happened with the interview?

What are you working on now?

How often do you go downstairs to pick out new (old) music to listen to? And do you listen still to several arrangements of the same thing or just what you have chosen as 'the best' interpretation?

quote:

Kluurs, I'm fascinated by your experience in running (as I've never been much good at it).
Can you tell me a little more about it?
How long have you been running, and have you done a marathon?
If so, how many marathons have you done?

I've been running about 20 years now. I started very slowly after a friend did a talk on running. I had pretty much trashed my shoulders on weight lifting - so I decided that it was time to ruin the rest of my body. Running seemed like the perfect approach.

I ran my first marathon back in '97. I hadn't planned on running it but started running with a group of people who were training for the Chicago marathon. After I did a 20 mile run with them, I thought it couldn't be too much more difficult to do the marathon - so I signed up.

The first marathon was tough. Subsequent marathons weren't quite as bad. I'm probably getting close to 20 marathons now. I'm scheduled to run one next month. I don't aim so much for a great time at this point - just do them as part of training. I may not do them much longer as I'm not sure how happy my body is with doing them.

I have a bit of a schedule -

Monday: tempo run - 8 miles - divided into 2 4 mile sessions with a 5 minute break in the middle.

Tuesday: Recovery run 4-6 miles

Wednesday: Track workout - 7-8 miles

Thursday: Recovery run - 6-8 miles

Friday: 4-8 miles

Saturday: Long run: 11 mile minimum

Sunday: Rest day - cycling

1.) How many times have been to Switzerland?
have only spoken to people on the phone there.
2.) What is your favorite candy?
bit of honey?
3.) Do you or any of your siblings have an autographed photo of Frank Sinatra?
sadly no
4.) Assume you are stranded in an airport for 24 hours. You head to the crappy little bookstore/newsstand in the terminal to find something to read. Your choices are the top 20 titles on the NYT bestseller list, an assortment of general interest periodicals, and a local and several out-of-town major newspapers. What will you purchase? (You have an unlimited budget thanks to your new job's expense account.)
I might go for the nonfiction best seller section - might be something decent there...maybe not...probably have already read all of the periodicals... :-( Out of town papers are also fun - so that too could be a purchase.
5.) Joliet or Elgin?
mental hospital or prison - hm....tough choice. I could take the Prairie Path between the two. that would be fun.
6.) Should I be worried?
Of course. We all should be.

Originally posted by lilylady:
How are the little birdies doing?
They have pretty much taken over our household. They're chirping now as I type. I'm in the market for a third little swing for them since they all seem to enjoy swinging. We've not gotten rid of anyone. Even though we have too many birds, I'd love to see some new babies. It was fun watching them grow up.
What happened with the interview?
Final interview is this Saturday - so prepping for that now. Have applied for another position as well. We'll see how things go - but the lead time seems to be pretty long.
What are you working on now?
Arthritis is limiting what and how much I play - but I'm toying with Liebesleid Rach/Kreisler I've been working on Schumann's Papillon for a while - probably needs more time than I have.
How often do you go downstairs to pick out new (old) music to listen to? And do you listen still to several arrangements of the same thing or just what you have chosen as 'the best' interpretation?
I'm forever going downstairs - and also listening to new things. I've been listening to a lot of Haydn Quartets by the Festics Quartet lately, piano performed by Sofronitsky and Cortot, oodles of Bach by a pianist I'd never heard of - Janssen. I could go on forever as I listen to different things every day. I do watch a couple of lists and boards - see what people are discussing - sometimes listen for myself to see what I think. I did enjoy a nice recording by Sokolov of the Rachmaninoff Concerto 3 - Flac recording - so nice quality, decent performance. Also have been listening to a bunch of pianists I'd never heard of but who are doing amazing things - e.g. Igor Tchetuev or Peter Takacs performing Beethoven, Natan Brand playing Schumann, Yulianna Avdeeva, Ingolf Wunder and Daniil Trifonov playing Chopin. Last week I listened to a lot of Takashi Asahina's conducting - Bruckner and Beethoven - incredible conductor not terribly well known here but a legend in Japan. It keeps me going. While I sometimes have a "best" version of something - it usually is a grouping of preferred performances.

Good luck on Sat!

Ah, the arthritis. Got it as well. Fingers always feel better (looser?) after I play.

Do you mostly listen to your CD's or do you bring up the vinyl?

Don't know of some which you speak. Have always wanted to have you mentor us with your knowledge. Shall check the above out.

I listen to mostly CDs - not so much vinyl though I do enjoy records as well.

We live in a time just before the great explosion I expect to hear. Downloading will become a bit more extensive and friendly in the coming decade. A lot of great recordings will be coming out of copyright. With increased competition, prices will decline. This is bad for record companies - but good for the consumer.

I expect that most, if not all, of my recordings will be transferred to servers in the next decade - giving me less reason to traverse those steps.

Frankly, I expect everyone to have access to collections of my size for a fraction of what I have paid over the years.

Right now there is a lot of confusion as many labels release the same classical artist (e.g. Emil Gilels) - but unless one is careful, you can buy the same performance more than once.

As downloading beocmes a bit more organized, one will be able to acquire everything Gilels (or many other artists) ever recorded.

Most folks aren't as nuts as I am about versions of particular works.

What is your record for most girl scout cookies eaten in a 24 hour period?

Interestingly, I have almost the same schedule as you. If you take your workout schedule, and do a search and replace, with "snack" for "run" we could be the same person...

What percentage of your Gouldian chicks survived?
How many do you have?
How do you deal with the feather dust?

What is your record for most girl scout cookies eaten in a 24 hour period?

That's a good question - those trays go awfully quickly... The girls scout moms in our town drive green Cadillacs - similar to the Mary Kay folks.

Interestingly, I have almost the same schedule as you. If you take your workout schedule, and do a search and replace, with "snack" for "run" we could be the same person...

I run to eat Girl Scout cookies...

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
What percentage of your Gouldian chicks survived?
How many do you have?
How do you deal with the feather dust?

In our initial bunch of birds, we went 4 for 4 surviving. The mother did try to toss out one of the kids - but we kept putting the baby back. Carol had a "talk" with the mom - and everything was Ok.

She subsequently had a baby a few months ago - and tossed it out twice. I tried to hand feed the little bird, but it did not survive. Gouldians are generally not great parents. Next time, I will either talk to the mom or go out and get some society finches to raise the kids as they are good foster parent birds.

We currently have six gouldians, 10 owl finches and 2 green singers - who don't like one another very much.

As for the feather dust - we have two large air cleaners next to the cage. In addition, I have the Miele vacuum next to the cage 24/7. I vacuum 2x a day. The birds make oodles of noise when the vacuum is turned on - kinda funny. I have no idea if they hate the sound or what is going on - but they go crazy.

Thanks, I had only one air cleaner. Did not give enough attention to vacuuming.
Have an aquarium now.

Chas - what kind of birds did you have - how many?

Ken, we WTF'er voyeurs love a good mushy story. Even if you've told it before, how and where did you meet Carol, and what was she thinking?