I drove down to Tillamook for a co-worker’s memorial service. It was a long drive in the pouring rain, and on the way back I almost ran out of gas. Really, there’s nothing good that can come of any of that, and the co-worker will be missed. I drove myself there and back because I didn’t know what kind of shape I’d be in on the way back. I think the alone time was good.

I guess the best thing about the trip was lunch. I had corned beef hash at Sunseri’s Dutch Mill and it was incredibly tasty for hash from a can. The whole place had an odd empty feel to it when I got there (one table of four and an elderly woman cooking) but the waitress finally made her way out and got me some bad coffee. The coffee was still better than Camp 18, and it is the coast after all. I’d certainly go back. And hopefully the next time will be for a happier reason.

I guess you can get a passport card for going to Canada or Mexico, or a few other places, as long as you travel by air or sea. I figure I may as well see what it takes to get one, since carrying a passport is kind of a pain and then I can make another New Years resolution to see Canada and then do it on a whim if I have this card in my wallet. Of course I’d have to drive up there, which is 7 hours or so, making it less whim-worthy, but what the heck. I’m sure there’s some catch I’m not seeing, though, and I’ll end up in some sort of Canadian prison where they only speak in Canadian French.

I’m dealing with some things by avoidance (things like driving to the coast for a memorial service, for example) and here’s a link to one of the music videos you’d expect me to like. At least this song was used in an iPod Touch commercial.

I can’t believe I took my mom to a restaurant that was a runner-up for Willamette Week’s restaurant of the year. I also can’t believe how much they like Thai restaurants with questionable service. Fortunately it didn’t mean that the place was crowded and annoying like Pok Pok. The food at Red Onion is tasty and we’ve always been able to get a seat, and I guess their service is more relaxed than I’m expecting. It’s certainly better than most brewpubs I’ve been to in town. I also found out that it certainly doesn’t take a lot of spice to get my sweat glands in overdrive. My broken down old body is finding more and more ways to embarrass me.

It was Sunday, a day where I usually cross off one item on my to-do list, but I did a few today. I moved around some more furniture, a chest of drawers and the old bed I used to sleep in before I started using my dad’s old bed. The old bed is a twin, and is now at the end of my office. My office needs a bed because we figure we’ll have guests coming from Japan next summer and if I don’t start moving things around now, I’ll never get around to it. I also started looking at the closet that needs finishing upstairs (the last big thing that needs to be done), tearing out some old trim and putting in some magnetic latches to hold on an attic access hatch. There’s no end to things I really need to finish, or projects in this house. Too bad I move so slowly on those.

Fortunately, the big freeze that was supposed to occur today didn’t really happen, though it is a bit slippery tonight. It was hard to get to the car, but driving wasn’t that bad except that the few other drivers on the road were all on snow day rules and didn’t seem to pay attention to any of the traffic signals.

I can’t remember what I did today. I did get my new 42″ TV, which shows me a large bad picture of the hundreds of channels of absolutely nothing interesting that I get with DirecTV. We’ll see what football looks like tomorrow. It started out kind of interesting when I woke up actually remembering a couple of dreams. The one I had just before I got up I had sold my new (3 year old) Civic and bought back my old S2000. Whoever had it in the interim didn’t keep it up too well, but I remember how it felt driving a sporty car. Maybe it’s a sign that I need another convertible. Or that I just need to get more sleep.

They said it was going to snow tonight and now the news stations are hedging their bets. One says freezing rain. Another says nothing much happening. We’ll see tomorrow morning. I rather enjoy no snow. You don’t have to shovel rain, and snow days mean people who think trashing your neighborhood and stealing things out of your yard to sled on is OK because, “It’s a snow day, man.”

Today was my day for making myself look really silly. You wouldn’t know about the second instance, where I was watching a recording of Wednesday’s Glee and tearing up over the show tunes unless you were here, and nobody was here. The other embarrassing moment was when I put some hot spice on my food at lunch, and it wasn’t that spicy. It did, however, make me sweat so much that it was dripping onto my shirt and my plate. Weird, huh? And I was sitting across from one of the few attractive women at work. Not that it would matter to her, I’m invisible after all. But who wants to be around an invisible sweaty guy?

Tonight’s burger club was at Hotel 50 downtown, a place that used to be a Marriott or something, and the burger was pretty good, but not great. It was too salty, and not incredibly flavorful. I’m just spoiled, though. The food in general was good but not great. Empanadas in puff pastry. Churros with a chocolate paste. Fries with the burger that were just salted. Tuna Tartar Cones that tasted mostly of the cone pastry. The best thing was the warm winter fries with “parmesan, chive, truffle, hint of spice” which were the best thing we had.

That compares to what I had for lunch, which was buffalo wild wings. That’s good, but not great as well, and a lot less money but a lot more Beaverton.

So the renovations aren’t perfect, and while we did insulate the rafters, we didn’t insulate the exterior walls. This basically means that it’s a bit cool upstairs. This is a lot better than it used to be when it was unbearably cold, but I finally had to put on my Uniqlo “room wear” to sleep last night. I used to have to put on sweatpants when it was in the 40’s outside and it was in the teens yesterday night so that’s progress.

Other than that, I think I got nothing again.

OK, so I said something yesterday about being DFL. I thought I’d back that up with some calculations, but it turns out that I was wrong. In fact, if my hatred of Excel didn’t skew the data analysis, I found out that I was within one standard deviation of the mean, and in fact was “above average” in my time yesterday. I was expecting to do a little better than that and thought I’d be more in the group of “Slow Children”. Speaking of which, I just realized that my sister had the album by “Slow Children” (called “Slow Children”) who were a new wave band in the 80’s. I can’t remember if I liked them or not.

Honestly, though, I did end up sore today from yesterday’s workout and that tells me that it was at least hard enough for me. Lying on the ground afterwards is another indication. The reason I work out is so I can eat more, which isn’t exactly a sport but is reason enough for me. I know I should have better life and career goals but that really wouldn’t be honest, now would it?

I figure getting NONE of the numbers right on my Megabucks lottery ticket is probably a sign of the luck I always have and I’m probably being punished for watching the fake computer-generated cartoon news from China about Tiger Woods. However, it’s probably libelous (in Chinese, anyway) and I find it hilarious. Mainly because I expect them to start blaming UFOs or something like the Pravda web site always does.

I was going to write something about getting close to DFL at the gym, but really I’m just trending towards the bottom end of the bell curve and am probably within a sigma or so and I also add other crap to the workout. More weight, deeper pushups, whatever I can to make it so I can’t effectively compare myself to anyone else’s performance. It’s all about smoke and mirrors, really, or just make-believe in my case. It’s much more fun that way. None of this getting up at 5AM to take my mom for eye surgery or getting to work only to find out a co-worker died in a sea kayaking accident in my fantasy world. (R.I.P. Dave Graham.)

Yesterday I ended up at a party with a bunch of guys who were playing for the other team. My sister, of course, would say, “WHICH TEAM IS THAT,” but I will say I had the best Manhattan I’ve ever had at the Red Cap Garage. Plus quite a bit of people watching. I have to say I’m old, it was loud, and I could hardly understand what people were saying, but just looking around was a hoot. The Manhattan was also quite potent and I didn’t feel all that great when I first got up, but it was worth it.

So today I spent a lot of time doing nothing. It was FREEZING outside (in reality it was probably a couple of degrees above freezing) but it was incredibly windy as well. I did finally make it out to have a cheeseburger at Ringside with Jeff. It was excellent. I’ve never had bad meat there, though the service has been a little hit-or-miss lately, and the burger was no exception. I think I’d put it up there with Laurelhurst Market and Wildwood, but it does take a bit of work to get a seat at the bar to order the burger.

I also have to get up early to take my mom in for her cataract surgery. I think they do that to torture old people. They get you in early and make you wait all day. That’s my theory, anyway, and I’m afraid we’re all going to find out the truth of cataract surgery sooner or later.

I had an auspicious start to the day. I was so tired that I fell asleep again after the alarm went off, but the radio was still on and I jerked myself awake and didn’t know where I was for a moment. Usually when the alarm wakes me up I know full well where I am and why I really don’t want to get out of my bed. For one thing, it’s been awfully cold lately, and it’s supposed to be even colder next week. I know, just below freezing is nothing to most people but it’s cold for an Oregonian. It’s just supposed to be in the 50’s and raining here.

Anyway, that just led to my usual Fridayness, coming home after work and trying to watch the TV shows that I missed during the week. There haven’t been many of the usual shows on, so there wasn’t that much to catch up on.

I always quote my dad when he was watching the Beavers play football. “They were bad when I went there, and they’re bad now, but for some reason they were good in between sometimes.” They’re good again, but not good enough to beat the Ducks. Phooey.

I left work early today because I had a doctor’s appointment. He’s the only one who ever sees me with my shirt off any more. All this effort at the gym, though, and just a disinterested dude looking at me. On the minus side, they often poke me with needles and do other uncomfortable stuff, so I wouldn’t suggest going to the doctor for any additional self-affirmation beyond find out if you’re healthy or not. I suppose I’d also be better off if I got to bed on time and didn’t fall asleep in the doctor’s waiting room as well. So much for that plan. I stayed up late watching sitcoms on the intarweb after seeing the Beavers lose. It’s not like seeing a common occurrence is going to endow me with more common sense.