Monthly Archives: July 2008

A group of us, including Nurse Tiff of the Stink-eye and non-updating-blog, went out to eat after the workout. I’m always rooting for dive bars, and Crackerjack in NW is quite the dive. I don’t mind going to local dives for the most part, but the drinkers at Crackerjack look a bit too serious for me. In contrast, the back deck at the Crackerjack is a nice area with picnic benches and usually full of neighbors and their kids. It’s funny how different it feels from the inside. In any case, we went to Laurelwood which is nicer and while I wanted a hamburger, I ate a pulled pork sandwich … Continue reading →

So for those who don’t do Crossfit, Fran is the name of a benchmark workout. 21 thrusters, 21 pullups, 15 thrusters, 15 pullups, 9 thrusters, and 9 pullups. My throat felt dry afterwards and it was from breathing so hard during the workout. In fact, your chest can hurt the day after the workout for the same reason. I think I was the slowest in our class, but I still improved my time and I even did more weight on the thrusters. The “prescribed weight” is 95# for the thruster and I did 85#. Last time I did 75#, so that’s a 13% increase. I’m not sure that was a … Continue reading →

My weight fluctuates about 5 pounds. I’ve read that’s common with males. I had a goal of losing 20 pounds from my peak of 185 but it’s kind of hard to pin down a weight when it moves around like that. So I figured I’d use the weight right after my post-workout shower. I also decided that I wouldn’t say I reached my goal of 165 unless I dipped below it. Well, I finally did it today. One-hundred-and-sixty-four pounds. Count it. You can imagine there are a lot of attractive women at the gym. And really, who could be more attractive than someone who makes cupcakes? I found out today … Continue reading →

Not much today, either. I especially had nothing when I was watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives except a bit of hunger. I was wondering if I should go to some of these places but who wants to travel to EBFE just for a hamburger? And what if it’s the best hamburger I’ve ever had? I’d have to go to Houston, or Peoria, or Cincinnati, or Armpitistan just for another shot at the best hamburger ever? I think I’ll keep taking awful business trips to San Jose for the possibility of going to In-N-Out.

I could talk about the hike we took this morning to Mt. Hamilton in the Gorge (across from Beacon Rock) or about the block party we had today, but I just got off the phone with someone who was updating me on my uncle’s condition and it’s nearly 11PM. Basically, she’s a family friend and she just told me about all of her worries and that I shouldn’t do anything. Basically, I have nothing positive to say about the situation. I may get to take another last minute trip, this time to Spokane. There’s no In-N-Out up there, but there is a Dick’s Hamburgers. I may have to drive my … Continue reading →

I took two boxes of books to the reseller and they bought quite a few of them. The ones they didn’t take I put in the recycling bin. I hate to do that to books that could possibly be of use to someone, but I’m not sure what to do with coffee-table books of “Buddhist Art of Japan.” I’m just happy to get rid of them, really. They even wouldn’t take one that is rare and possibly worth something because the spine was cracked. What do they expect from a scholarly pamphlet from the 50′s? Powell’s books is kind of a disappointment to me because they’ve become so large that … Continue reading →

I can’t believe a simple business trip would make me feel so old and creaky. My knee hurt from the flight down and today I was so tired I couldn’t concentrate and my back started to knot up. I was fine by late afternoon (and a couple of naps) but really, this is what I can expect from a sixteen-hour workday?

You know things aren’t quite right when you start your day off with a 7:30AM meeting and you finally get home at 11PM and all you’ve had to eat for dinner was some cashews and a couple of cookies. Especially if you had to work through dinner, watching people trying to configure a computer that shouldn’t be so hard to fix. Oh, and lunch was a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger at the Wendy’s stand in the airport which you ate standing in line to get on the plane that you barely caught. At least barely catching the return flight wasn’t so bad because I GOT HOME. When I got home I … Continue reading →

It happens. I’m tired, I’m a bit stressed, and it doesn’t make me all that happy. I’m still not sure what I should do about visiting my uncle, the plumber is working on the house and that means some disruption at home, and I’m supposed to do something at work tomorrow that isn’t going to turn out well. In fact, it’s looking like someone has to go to a customer site to get yelled at, and it looks like that someone might be me. Oh, well, I have the X-Files Movie to look forward to. I’m very much a geek about it and I my have to go see it … Continue reading →

I was picking on the 24YO nurse at the gym because, well, she’s 24. It only took me this long to figure out that she’s TWENTY YEARS YOUNGER THAN ME. I think I mentioned how I was shredding old phone records and I found calls to my college girlfriend from 1984, the year she was born. Yeesh. Well, she should be worried because I’m trying to figure out how to become a youth vampire. She’ll just get all dowdy like a librarian and want to yell at the kids to get off her lawn and I’ll start wearing a goatee and a porkpie hat and riding a fixed-gear bicycle around. … Continue reading →

I’ve actually had three calls today on my phone. Plus one where I called myself but I’m sure that doesn’t count. All three calls were from our friend Jay the Contractor about the plumbing we’re having put in. He told me that my voice mail was broken the last time he called. Voice mail is something AT&T/Cingular likes to screw up. I had troubles with my last phone once because Cingular CHANGED THE NUMBER you had to call and forgot to tell anyone about it. I called them several times before someone told me the new number. Well, this time it was a mess. I called and the recorded message … Continue reading →

I could make a list of the things that annoy me about my iPhone. It stuttered playing a podcast of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, it rebooted when I tried to open Twinkle and even with Wifi, 3G, and the GPS turned off it still sucks battery. But it’s still fun. It’s amazingly good for watching Youtube videos and I got sucked into watching music videos again. I suppose that’s all there is. My uncle now knows that I know that he’s been in an accident. I didn’t get a call back from the social worker. I didn’t get a call back from the arborist I called. So life continues … Continue reading →