Time to make my resolutions.

There are a couple of things I need to finish before the end of the year, my year-end charitable donations and compiling a list of resolutions. I can’t remember exactly what my resolutions were from last year, but I think I blew them all. I think in the past I said I wanted to go on one date per month, and I had four dates this year, so that’s not nothing. 33% is still a failing grade.

I worked from home today and then went to the gym. We had burger club after the gym and we went back to the Carlyle where we had mixed opinions. I think it’s high on my list, but Kara hated her burger. Matty G thought the burger was OK. I like it because the meat and bacon are tasty, and the fries are excellent. The cocktails are also quite good. I suppose we just have a difference of opinion.

It’s time to call it a day. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get some things done.

I hate the snow.

We had some weather today that caught everyone by surprise. It started snowing when I got back from lunch, and it didn’t get much better. Usually I just wait it out when we get unexpected snow because it just panics everyone into going home early and then melts before the real rush hour, but I left just before 3PM instead. I didn’t get home until after 4. My usual 35-45 minute commute was more like an hour and fifteen minutes. That’s not too bad, though, since the 10 o’clock news showed rush hour was still going when it should have been over by 6:00 or 6:30PM. I have a friend who even gave up and just got a hotel room downtown instead of heading back to Hillsboro with his kids.

I’m not sure why I’m still up, besides being foolish. I wasn’t able to do my full amount of screwing around because the snow covered my DirecTV dish and I couldn’t watch TV. I had comic books to read, though. 100 Bullets and it’s 100 issues long.

The weird thing is that I’ve had trouble sleeping this week. I toss and turn for a while and then when I’m good and asleep I have to wake myself up for a trip to the bathroom. The bathroom trip is just because I drink a lot of water after getting back from the gym, but it does come at an inconvenient time. I’ve seen a lot of twitter postings complaining about insomnia as well. Perhaps it’s the mind control drugs in the water.

I went a whole day with my new glasses and I’m trying to get used to the astigmatism correction. They seem a lot clearer than my contacts, but, like always, I’ll probably go back and forth with my contacts for a while. I like the contacts because I don’t have to have anything on my face and I get peripheral vision, but I like the glasses because they’re clearer and they don’t make my eyes feel funny. It’s always a tradeoff.

There ain’t no geek like a ham radio geek.

Wow, I spent a lot of money last month. I’m watching my bank account get smaller and smaller, but then again I do still have a job so I can’t complain too much. I wondered what presents I bought myself for Xmas (since you get them for the ones you love, after all, and who else is buying presents for me?) and there’s a 42″ HDTV (because it was on sale), some $30 light switches (because I’m crazy — they don’t seem that different than the $3 ones), and a $100 CW Reader/Keyboard/Keyer kit.

Let me explain what a keyer does. It helps you send Morse code with two switches, one that sends the dits and one that sends the dahs. A CW Keyboard lets you type a message on a QWERTY keyboard to be sent out in Morse code. Finally, a CW reader listens to Morse code and then decodes it into text. The kit I bought required soldering and other sundry assembly and required me to wear a magnifying visor.

I should point out that Morse code has been declared obsolete and is no longer used in commercial service such as messages from ships to shore. It’s not even required on ham radio tests any longer. But of course, as soon as they declared it obsolete, I decided to start using it again. Using a CW Reader is cheating, but I decided to buy one to play with anyway.

Other than that I was watching football like a manly American male, and I think I’m also hooked on Community. Curse you Sean!

P.S. I’m already caught up on episodes of Modern Family.

All I got for Xmas was a cold.

Yesterday I went out to lunch with my buddy Mike and his family, upholding sacred Jewish traditions by going out for Chinese food. I don’t know if the new Chinatown in Portland (down on SE 82nd) was open, but all the restaurants I saw in the old Chinatown were open. We went to Powell’s as well, where I got to read two books to his son. The books weren’t as bad as I’d feared, at least not the ones from the “magic bus” series.

After I got home I watched my triplet of Xmas movies, Comfort and Joy, A Christmas Carol, and Love Actually. I think Love Actually is the only romantic comedy I have since I gave Next Stop Wonderland to my ex. I may have to buy another copy of that movie. Of course, I have Top Gun which might actually be a homoerotic romantic comedy, but I hardly ever watch that even though it was one of the first DVDs I ever bought. (Blade was the first.)

Today I went to the gym and watched football. I think I had some other things I wanted to do, but I thought I was coming down with a cold yesterday and I figured napping and being lazy didn’t require more excuses than that. I also caught up on the episodes of Cougar Town. After Courtney told me it was funny I started looking for episodes and then Sean told me I had to start watching. I actually think it was worth it. Now to see if Parks and Recreation (Sean and Il’s suggestion), and Community (Sean’s suggestion), are also worth watching.

I also seem to have killed my bottle of Laphroaig in the past two days. It is one of my favorites, but I had Aardbeg a few times and wonder if that won’t be even higher on my list. I’ll have to get a bottle to make sure.

Today it seemed like I didn’t actually get a cold for Xmas. I only got one gift this year (besides all the cookies) and it was something from my janitorial job at the gym. Otherwise I got bupkis. I was going to make a point here, but I think the Laphroaig I had is limiting any more thoughts I could possibly have tonight. Andiamo.

Who picked these movies?

Xmas Eve is almost over and I’m breaking out my Xmas movies. First on my list is Comfort and Joy, a Bill Forsyth movie that I was looking for for years until I finally found it on a Region 2 DVD. It’s actually kind of sad so I wonder why I watch it. The second is A Christmas Carol, the old one from 1951 with Alastair Sim. This is one of the movies that I watched when I first found out I had leukemia and wasn’t sleeping well that actually put me at ease. Croupier was another, and there were a series of webcomics, mostly gone now, that also distracted me and kept me from worrying. And the third movie (there must be more) is Love, Actually. I think I can watch this movie without getting sentimental now.

Anyway, as I was typing this, it’s now crossed over into Xmas. Merry Xmas for those of you who believe in that sort of thing, and Happy Chinese Food Day for those of us who are going out to eat. I’m helping a buddy uphold a sacred Jewish tradition by eating Chinese food, but then again he’s the guy who told me I should only eat bacon cheeseburgers because the bacon and cheese canceled each other out and made the hamburger kosher. Just in case you were wondering, I had a bacon cheeseburger for lunch ($5 including a soft drink) and for dinner last night ($40 including adult drinks).

I like big butts and I cannot lie.

Wait, I was going to write a title about tonight’s SOLO BURGER CLUB. Matty G ditched me so I went to Meriwether’s on my own. I think at $14 it is the most expensive hamburger I’ve had on my burger quest. If I add my bar tab, it certainly the most I’ve spent. The burger was pretty darn good. I admire a restaurant that will actually cook a burger RARE for you, like Meriwether’s and the Carlyle will. I have to say the salting was uneven and there was a bite that was overly salty while others were a little bland, but overall it was pretty good. The standout was the ciabatta bun which was crunchy but not hard, so it never got chewy nor did shards cut up my mouth. The grilled onions could have been sweeter, and the bacon might have been what was unevenly salty. The fries were crispy and seasoned and came with real ketchup and were particularly good. It was just below the top tier, but maybe cooking it to medium rare could actually push it into the top tier. Carmelizing the sugars on the surface of the meat can do wonders.

I remember what I was working my way up to yesterday. My workout at the gym continues beyond what most people at Recreate Fitness do because I mop the floor. Until recently, I’ve only mopped the floor one way (right hand towards the top of the mop). I tried switching hands and had an incredibly difficult time of it at first but now I’m finally getting the hang of it. It also seems to be working my abs a lot more than I’d expect. I guess that means you shouldn’t give up on improving your mopping skills, especially if you practice five times a week. Plus it’s a great core workout.

What the hell was I going to write?

There was some point in time when I’d actually have ideas of what to put on here. I think it was back when I started working out at Recreate fitness and my brain was oxygen deprived throughout the workout. Now I’ve gotten past that and I think I’m just tired and sore all the time. That, plus I’m not smart enough to go to bed on time and here I am staring at the computer again. Lack of sleep makes my vocabulary go, well, smaller, so I not have so many words. I can’t even spell perspicacity without looking it up.

And guess what? I’ve been online chatting for the last hour. You may think it was something creepy, but it was worse: international business requires meetings at 11:30PM when I should be asleep.

Wow. Work is intruding on my blog writing time. Who woulda thunk it? Completely vented the head of steam I had built up. It probably is for the best. I doubt it would have made any sense anyway.

Things I like reading.

I love reading mysteries, but I often don’t have the time to read even the ones I like. It’s sad for an Engilsh major who used to blow through a mystery every other day. Now I stick to RSS feeds of geek sites, web comics, and celebrity gossip. Once in a while, though, some of the spam that arrives in my email is worth reading. I’ve been on dating sites for fifteen years, and I think I’ve gone on two dates in that whole time. The best is when you get the classics composed by Nigeria’s finest.

I beautiful the young girl. I am always assured of myself and very much I like to laugh and have fun.

I very much love when people are pleased. At me it is a lot of friends but beside there is no favorite person.

I already have very long lived without the love but I still hope that sometime I shall find the love and I shall be happy.

Among the friends I as cannot find the love. From them nobody approaches me.

I can name them only good friends, but not favorite person. I hope tofind the man of my dream.

I very much hope that sometime to me I will carry also shall find such person and I shall be happy with it.

I very much want to find love as I am very tired to live in loneliness, without the favorite person beside.

I very much hope that sometime success will turn in my party and will show me a correct way.

I very much hope that the destiny will show me road where to me to search for second half, that person which heart should is near to mine.

I broke up with someone for poor spelling but I can’t remember if it was because of poor grammar as well. I know, that’s why I’m perpetually single and never dating, but really, poor spelling pisses me off.

More proof I shouldn’t be drinking.

I have no idea why I came back from a wine and cheese party and ended up looking up PG Porn on youtube. I’ll let you do your own research, but I remember something about being at the party late and finishing off all the open bottles with the guys who were left. How I ended up on youtube, however, I don’t know.

I was a little hung over today, but I did end up going out to brunch with Sean, Jeff, and Hannah, so the day wasn’t a complete loss. I can’t really remember doing anything else important, though. I did find some episodes of The Middleman online and watched those. I can’t believe I never knew about it when it was on, though it was on ABC Family. I wish it was still on.

Platt Electric never does me any favors.

Burger club was a bust tonight, but I did have a nice dinner with Erin and Tigh. Or is it Tai? I have no idea how he spells his name. No one else showed up or replied, and the three of us made it to Carlyle, but they only had one burger left! I had it and I think I need to get everyone over there to try it. It was that good, and the thinly cut fries were tasty. It matched the description from the menu:

Hand Ground Hamburger
Pearl Bakery brioche bun, aged cheddar, thick-cut bacon, roasted tomato jam, french fries
$11.00

I forgot about the bacon. It was smoky and flavorful and TENDER. I hate it when you have to chew through leathery bacon, or you end up pulling all of it out when your teeth don’t cut all the way through it. This bacon wasn’t like that. Another plus was the drink I had, the “Curse of Scotland” which paired some sweetness with the smoky peaty taste of Aardbeg. The thin fries were nice and crispy, though the aioli paired with them was a bit disappointing. They told us they had ketchup in the back, but I asked after we’d inhaled all the fries we ordered.

carlyle

One big minus was the portion size. The place is butt expensive, and the servings are on the diminutive side. Anyone who has eaten one of the brioche buns from Grand Central knows it’s not that big. Ah, well, at least I didn’t feel sick after my burger, fries, and tasty but tiny waffle dessert. It was probably the right amount of food.

On to my complaint about Platt Electric. I finally got my $25 light switches from them, and you probably know how small and light 3 light switches are. THEY CHARGED ME $17 FREIGHT FOR THE F*CKING THINGS. And I had to go pick them up in person. And I had to go in and remind them that we had them on back order before they realized they had them on the shelf for a whole week. And they had to call several different people before they would sell them to me. Motherf*ckers. Well, that’s what I get every time I go to Platt Electric. Don’t they know my ass is already sore from Joe Lieberman?

Lifting light.

My back hurts. I’m old. I’m going to deadlift less.

There it is.

There are some days where I feel a little run down and I think those days are called, “Wednesday.” In any case, I thought I had something to say, but I spent most of the day at work, and I got nothing right now.

Actually, I do have one thing. I’m going to eat another cheeseburger tomorrow night, and it better be good.