Monthly Archives: June 2008

I should be asleep, but it’s Monday and the Food Network is taunting me with, “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” I’m a big fan of greasy diner food and am haunted by cheeseburgers. And fried chicken. Basically, anything that’s bad for me and is at odds with all the work I do at the gym. I know Mark the Yoot is able to practice culinary self-denial, but I just know that anything with flavor is bad for me and I like to eat bad things. Really, that’s about the worst thing I do. Fortunately, the best bad food appears to be in the South, and I don’t get down there all … Continue reading →

I went on a hike with people from the gym today to Dog Mountain on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge. It was rough. For one thing, it’s a bazillion degrees today (less than yesterday, but 90°F+ is still hot for me) and the trail is straight up. It was only 3.1 miles but 2800 feet of climb, or so the intarweb says. It took us two hours to get up the hill and it was STRAIGHT UP. No switchbacks, just straight up. Very much like the other fire trail I’ve been up before. We went up the “harder” trail because the guide book said it was more … Continue reading →

I’m an Oregonian, so 65°F and overcast is fine weather. Today it officially hit 99°F so that usually means it was a couple of degrees warmer in the city. It’s only in the 60′s in San Francisco and I’m fantasizing that I’m there. I went to the gym in the morning and by the end of the day I as feeling a little sick. I don’t tolerate the heat too well. I’m going to get up early tomorrow for a hike. Unfortunately for me, it’s a bazillion degrees in my bedroom and it’s so close to the 4th of July that kids are setting off fireworks in the field across … Continue reading →

I left work early after being in meetings from 8AM until 3PM. On the way out, I heard a guy talking about chemotherapy and I thought, “That’s a club I don’t want anyone else to join.” Tonight my friend told me that her boss was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer today. I’m not sure what I can do but hope for the best. I suppose that’s an advantage of being religious, always having something you can do. Other than that, nothing spectacular is happening in my life. Work continues to humiliate me, I’m still going to the gym and posting weak times, and the most exciting thing I did this … Continue reading →

I’m trying to improve my performance at the gym. In the past my kettlebell swings were kind of awful so I had to work on those. Now my squats are a weak point and I have to figure out what I’m doing wrong. I’m thinking of setting up a web cam so I can watch myself. When I was down at San Francisco Crossfit doing back squats, I could see what the other people were doing but I couldn’t really tell what I was doing just by feel. I have gizmos and I may as well use them. I got a call from our friend the contractor and his plumber … Continue reading →

Under Doodiehead’s law, section 27A of the Crossfit Act of 1933, as amended, and section 21E of the Exercise Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, this blog must comply to standards of communication that limit risk factors. The Private Useless Blog Reform Act of 1995 provides a “safe harbor” for certain forward-looking statements. This blog must now include a form of a disclaimer that states that any instance of a forward-looking statement found in this material is only true at the time it was written, and further claim that I am under no obligation to update such written statements if conditions change or that unexpected occurrences happen to affect the … Continue reading →

I’ve been falling asleep all day, even at work where I was running around trying to answer customer questions all day. But here I am up late again and I don’t even think I have a good reason for it. Perhaps I can blame it on the stress of work but mostly it’s poor time management. Plus, I can’t seem to get to sleep very soon after working out. Tomorrow is another “benchmark workout” at the gym. In fact, it’s called “Fight gone bad.” Just thinking about it makes me want to hide in bed all day, so I better just quit the typing and hit the hay. That would … Continue reading →

It must be obvious that I have very little common sense when it comes to certain things. Like repeatedly sniffing the wristband of my old Timex watch because it smelled funny. It’s not like it’s going to smell any better if I keep up that sort of odd behavior. I’m also weird about cherries. I’m a little allergic but I really like them so I used to eat them until my lips went numb. I’m probably getting a little smarter because I was given some today by Cristina at the gym and only ate a half-dozen of them and it usually take more like a dozen for the numbness to … Continue reading →

My mom got this pedometer in Japan that tracks your mileage as a trip around Japan. So there’s this pixellated little map and it tells you when you’re getting near major cities. Ever since she got it, she’s walking everywhere and today she decided we were going to walk to Peets Coffee and back. It’s only about two miles each way, but she was excited to make it to another town on the map that she’d never heard of. It’s on the way from Tokyo to Nagoya, though. Sounds like my sister is going to bail on the fall trip to Japan, opting instead to run a marathon. I’ve already … Continue reading →

My brother-in-law is off to England to study Chaucer and my sister is off shopping with my mom, so I’m stuck at home with my sister’s weird dog. I know the dog is cute and all, but she’s weird. Which is good because she fits in with the rest of the family. They didn’t want to leave her alone because, I guess, basenjis come with pre-existing abandonment issues. So now I’m stuck reading a book which is what I’d be doing anyway. In any case, I’m sitting here hungry because I didn’t eat enough dinner last night. I had some nachos and a Cosmopolitan in a gay wine bar in … Continue reading →

You may be saying, “Geez. Mariko’s brother is talking all random again. What the hell is this Fran thing? Wasn’t one of Mariko’s friend’s cats named Fran?” Fran is a Crossfit thing where they time you doing 21 then 15 then 9 sets of thrusters and pullups. The standard male weight for the thrusters is 95 pounds but I only did 75 pounds and, surprisingly, I wasn’t DFL. Well, surprising and not surprising. Not surprising because I was using 20 pounds less than the rest of the guys (and Mark the yoot beat me by three or four minutes!) Surprising because I’ve been away from the gym so long. I … Continue reading →

I was DFL at the gym today and tired and sneezing. It’s finally time for phase 2 of my yearly hay fever fun! I’m hoping it doesn’t get too bad, but with all the rain making everything grow. But I can’t really blame my performance on my hay fever. I took 3 weeks off because of my back, went back for a week, and last week I only made it to San Francisco Crossfit once and never saw the inside of the hotel’s gym. So basically, I’m a big load. Not only that, but I realized I’ve been at some sort of conference for a week and a half — … Continue reading →