Manny Lawson continues his popular column, "Manny's Law," with his second entry of the 2009 offseason. Enjoy catching up with the 49ers outside linebacker as he talks about his assessment of the 49ers offseason, his trips to some football camps of his teammates and his venture into the world of cooking.

We just finished our offseason minicamps and OTAs and I have to say – we all got better because of the intensity of our workouts. Being around each other really brought the team together and I think it was good for us to get that quality work in.

I think overall for me, getting back into the pass rushing aspect of football was fun. I’m getting to rush the passer more like I was in college and this offseason allowed me to improve my pass rushing skills. I think I’ve come along tremendously as a pass rusher. The more and more I do it, the better I’ve become.

But, it was hard to slow down in practice when I was rushing the passer. It’s something you need to do during the offseason. Our coaches want us to play at a pace where we don’t hurt each other. But, nobody wants to get beat. We’re all competitors and there’s pride involved. We were told a few times to calm down and slow the tempo down. But the coaches are talking to athletes who got to the NFL because of our love of competition.

While we were practicing, our team facility was getting some construction work done and it was hard not to notice it as you jogged on and off the field. Architecture and industrial engineering are two things I’m very passionate about. I’m curious to see what it’s going to be like when it’s all said and done. All you can see right now is the support beams outside of our locker room. They’re expanding the locker room and putting in a bigger player’s lounge, which should be nice.

If I was in charge of re-designing our locker room/facility, I’d do something totally different.

Personally, I don’t like traditional designs – stuff that’s been done over and over again. So, instead of making a rectangular locker room why not make it a dome? Dome half of it out! Maybe make it circular or something like that? And then change it up on the inside and make it unique. I would make it look more artistic to match my personal point of view.

A few weeks ago, some of us got together away from the field at Takeo Spikes' 7th annual youth football camp in Sandersville Georgia.

First of all, going back to the South was like old times – it was real hot! But we had a good turnout with the kids and they were all having a good time at the camp. A bunch of my teammates, mainly all of our linebackers were there to support Takeo and that was a lot of fun coaching up the kids together.

I wish I had the opportunity to go to a camp like that when I was a kid! Just being out there with the kids made me think of my youth and how I loved playing football. The drill that I was responsible for teaching the kids was the 40-yard dash. I gave the kids tips on how to run as fast as possible. We even made a little game of tag out of it. I told the kids to not let the person behind them catch up and I think it made them all run faster. Overall we had a great time instructing the campers and it was really was just a fun weekend.

After that, I helped Moran Norris with his foundation event/football camp in Houston. It’s nice to spend time with your teammates away from the facility, especially when you’re able to support their foundations and give back to the community.

I think the rest of the offseason is going to be pretty chill for me. I don’t have any exact plans for the month-plus that we have off. I don’t have any definite plans, but I know I’ll be eating a lot of PB&J’s. That’s peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for those of you who don’t consistently follow my columns! But I’m not going to eat as many as I normally do.

Believe it or not, but I’m starting to cook a little more.

It’s the summertime, so I’ll be doing lots of grilling, ‘cueing and enjoying myself in the warm weather outside. If I had to pick one thing I make the best, I think my go-to dish is my spaghetti.

My spaghetti is on-point!

I chop up my own vegetables, cook up my own meat, throw in some traditional pasta sauce and then thrown in my ingredients to give it the right spices, but also a sweet taste. It’s so good – trust me!

Being that we have our minicamps and OTAs out the way, we’re all looking forward to training camp. It’s another step that gets us closer to the season and I’m excited to see what some of these young guys on the team are going to do when we get the pads on. It’s going to be good to add some contact to our practices. I’m excited that it’s coming, but I’ll be more excited when it’s over. Because that means the season is here…