I took a day off from the gym, not so much from work, and boy howdy did I have an exciting time. I was juggling hard drives trying to get a working system so I could make a bootable USB stick. Whoo-wee. Lots of moving hard drives around and their associated data, hoping that I wouldn’t copy in the wrong direction and destroy all my data. Certainly not the most exciting thing to do, but it’s what I do.

Really, in summary, I didn’t get any real work done.

The reason I took a day off from the gym, besides being all sore from working out, is that tomorrow is deadlift day and even more important, the burrito-eating throwdown between several of the more foolish competitive eaters in the gym. Whatever those guys are doing, it’s working for them in the workouts. Also, since I haven’t placed any bets on any of the competitors (unless of course Nurse Beechwood is competing) I may be called in as a judge. THMFIC has too much at stake to be impartial in this contest.

I’m spending money like a crazy man. I’m not sure if it’s to fill an empty hole in my life or if I’m just trying to jump start the economy on my own. In any case, my old boss, my buddy John, my buddy Greg, and my sister all have fancy espresso machines so I thought it was time to get one for myself.

It was on sale at Costco. I know it’s an extravagance and I owe a boatload of money to Jay the Contractor and his crew, but I’m in Portland where we’re known for our beer, coffee, and strip clubs. I suppose we’re also known for our rain and Nike and other things, but coffee is certainly in our top five and there are even three fairly large coffee roasters in my neighborhood. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a coffee shop by my house and they’re not all Starbucks, either. I’m really not sure why you’d be treating a dead cat in that manner, but you shouldn’t have two Starbucks on the same block either.

In any case, at the gym today I was unable to do any kettlebell clean and presses. NONE AT ALL. Actually, it was because they changed the workout to do more leg work and less of the kettlebell clean and presses, but what fun is it to admit to that? We rowed until our legs felt like they were going to fall off and then did leg circuits until we were certain they were going to fall off. Good times were had by all and I wonder if I’m going to be able to walk tomorrow. We’ll see.

I had yet another secret competition going on: doing as many pullups as the women’s record in the gym, but it was not to be. I was having a rough time with the pullups today and I can’t just blame that on the crick I’ve had in my neck since last Friday. I was only able to do 16. I tried to break the women’s record the last time we did max pull-ups and I was only able to match the record of the time which was 24. Devon got on the bar right after me and raised the record to 26. In any case, the women’s record is now 30 thanks to Courtney. I have some catching up to do.

Oh, and it sounds like nobody wrote down my personal record of 24 pull-ups, so since I have no other witnesses, I’m still “officially” at 20 kipping pull-ups and 12 dead-hang pull-ups. I’ve been stuck at 12 dead hang pull-ups for a long time and I’m afraid that even if I replace my ass with some sort of helium-filled ass, it wouldn’t make a big difference according to my previous calculations.

Oh, and the reason I don’t try to match the men’s record is because Ben has it at 43 or something similarly ridiculous.

In other news, THMFIC was in a mood tonight and was scowling a lot at the start of the workout. I was worried that he had a toothache or something, but he lightened up after he was finished with work and realized he could go home. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t scowling at anyone else, but I pay extra for that sort of treatment.

In better news, the tiling appears to be done! The grout still needs to go in, but look at how nice it looks!

It’ll look even nicer when the tile saw is out of there and the new toilet and the washlet are installed. And the cabinets. And the lighting. And the flooring. It’s still a ways from being finished but I’m pretty psyched about the progress.

So today at the gym we did more count-y exercises. Not geographical county, but exercises where you do a bunch of stuff and you have to count how many you do. You’re not supposed to be competitive about it all, but if I wasn’t a little competitive then I wouldn’t be going to the gym, I’d be at home watching FoodTV (it’s Monday after all).

Or maybe Chuck. There’s this blonde woman at the gym who I can pretend is Sarah because the TV show is only going to work if the two never actually get together so the metaphor works, somehow, at least in my twisty-turny thoughts. I’m only like Chuck in that I’m probably heading for a job fixing computers at some big electronics store, not in the spy part.

But back to the count-y thing, we did 12 minutes of:

• 5 Burpees
• 10 kettlebell snatches (5 per arm)
• 15 mountain climbers
• 20 2-handed kettlebell swing

and counted the number of rounds we got. I almost did six rounds but time was called when I was at 19 kettlebell swings. Since I’ve taken almost all the science and engineering classes a person can take as an undergraduate, I know about counting. You have to set the rules and stick by them or counting is arbitrary and capricious. Whole numbers are a good thing and they’re even better for people like most gym rats who probably wouldn’t know a fraction if it hit them in the head. So I know I only did five rounds. Still, I feel like the ref cheated me somehow. I blame society.

Anyway, I should get on with my evening and start with my counting of sheep. Or maybe just thinking of beautiful women in sundresses with bushels of peaches, a thought triggered by the song Peaches by The Presidents of the USA that is stuck in my head. OK, so maybe I’ll watch some music videos on YouTube and then start counting sheep. Maybe some Duran Duran…