How I spend my free time
Curling
I've enjoyed watching curling for about 10 years now. A few years ago, my wife sent me and some friends to a Learn to Curl clinic run by the Circle City Curling Club in Indianapolis. We fell in love. The four of us signed up for their curling league and happily spent two winters driving up to the north side of Indianapolis to get our fix. Unfortunately the pandemic stopped our fun and the the club moved up to Anderson, making the Friday night drives unworkable. So my curling dreams are temporarily on hold. I take great pride in knowing that we are probably the best men's curling team in all of Monroe county.
Baking and Cooking
I enjoy almost everything related to food and drink. While Melissa and I are never opposed to exploring new restaurants, we love to spend time working in the kitchen. If I can spend an entire day working on some elaborate meal, I'm a happy guy. Being the analytical sort, I tend towards baking, where I get to weigh all my ingredients and monitor things like humidity and temperature. It's basically edible chemistry. I recommend Serious Eats (and if you want to go old-school Alton Brown's Good Eats) for great recipes and the science behind them. If you're interested in breads and pizzas, I strongly recommend Ken Forkish's Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast and The Elements of Pizza
National Parks
Starting about four years ago, Melissa and I have been trying to visit a couple of US National Parks every year. The long-term goal is to visit the vast majority of them (some, like Kobuck Valley are incredibly remote, so I'm not sure we'll make the trip). We've hit parks from Alaska to Florida and Washington to Maine, but we aren't even close to half-way yet (20 out of 62). When possible, we like to explore on foot, with backpacks, to get into the more remote areas and away from the crowds. Note: the banner pictures used on this site are all from our trips to the parks.
Running
Hobbies like cheese and baking have their consequences, so I started running about 20 years ago and I'm hooked. I've explored everything from 5Ks to ultras, and I have a strong preference for the longer (slower) distances as I get older. My project for 2020 was running on every single street in Bloomington (I finished on Dec. 30th), but I would always rather be out on the many amazing trails around town.
Cheese
Not much to say here except that I really, really like cheese. Buttery, gooey, melty, crumbly, stinky, or moldy, I like to eat almost all of 'em.